Copyright Screen Rant
One of Will Smith's earliest franchises, Men in Black, is making quite a showing on streaming, well over a decade since the actor's last appearance as Agent J. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, the first installment in the sci-fi action franchise was released in 1997, with Smith and costar Tommy Lee Jones both returning for two sequels released in 2002 and 2012. Though the franchise has been dormant since the release of Men in Black: International in 2019, love for the earlier installments evidently still persists, as the first three Men in Black movies are all currently present in the Paramount+ U.S. top 10. Men in Black 3 currently ranks as the eighth most popular movie on the service in the U.S., beating both Top Gun: Maverick (2022) and Grown Up 2 (2013). Men in Black 2 (2002) occupies sixth place, beating Fight or Flight (2024), while the original Men in Black (1997) is in fourth, beating Grown Ups (2010). The top three movies on Paramount+ in the U.S. are currently Step Brothers (2008), Vicious (2025), and, in first place, The Naked Gun (2025). Though the Men in Black franchise isn't cracking the top three (yet), the presence of the first three movies on the chart suggests continued affection for this IP. The first three movies remain, critically and commercially, the most successful in the franchise. International, which was intended to serve as a reboot, has a lackluster 23% on Rotten Tomatoes and was widely rejected by audiences. The film grossed only $253 million worldwide, marking a new franchise low. The first three Men in Black movies are all built around the dynamic between Smith's Agent J and Agent K, his older and more serious partner. Jones plays K in all three, but Men in Black 3 (2012) features a time travel plot in which Josh Brolin plays a younger version of the character for much of the runtime. Smith, Jones, and Brolin did not return for International, which opted to introduce an entirely new cast that included Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. Though official news regarding Men in Black 5 has been hard to come by, there have been rumors that Sony is interested in another sequel. The fact that the Smith-starring movies are now all popular on streaming is certainly a sign that audiences are ready for a return from Agent J. Considering Jones had only a small role in Men in Black 3, it's not clear if he would return for another adventure as well, but Brolin could return to play the younger version of the character.
