Forget ‘Bridgerton,’ This 91% RT Fantasy Romance Is a Free Streaming Obsession 28 Years Later

Although it received a mixed reception from some and was the latest in a long line of review-bomb victims, Bridgerton Season 4 was undeniably popular. Regularly scoring a place at the top of the streaming charts, and even placing inside the top ten for 13 days this month, Bridgerton marked an impressive increase in viewership on its previous outing, with Season 4, Part 1 watched by 6.4 million households during the live plus three-day period. This was a 52% boost over Season 3’s premiere, and helped the show reach #1 in the streaming ranks of 83 different countries.

Key to the success of Season 4 was the simple yet ever-so-effective usage of a Cinderella love story for viewers to latch onto. As the blossoming romance between Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) and Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha) took its many twists and turns, its comforting structure as a story oft-told made this a perfect easy watch for millions. But that doesn’t mean it’s the greatest Cinderella story ever told, with one of the very best suddenly reaching the streaming charts almost 30 years after it was first released.

The movie in question is Ever After, also called Ever After: A Cinderella Story in initial promotional material. A near-perfect fairy tale retelling that features some surprisingly feminist themes, the movie earned hugely positive reviews from critics, including a 91% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with most praising the script’s endearing twist on the original story and Drew Barrymore‘s excellent lead performance. The movie also boasts a menacing turn from Anjelica Huston as the evil stepmother and Dougray Scott as the prince. At the time of writing, Ever After is one of the ten most-streamed movies on the free streamer Tubi in the U.S.





















































Collider Exclusive · Middle-earth Quiz
Which Lord of the Rings
Character Are You?

One Quiz · Ten Questions · Your Fate Revealed

The road goes ever on. From the green hills of the Shire to the fires of Mount Doom, every soul in Middle-earth carries a destiny. Ten questions stand between you and the truth of who you are. Answer honestly — the One Ring has a way of revealing what we most want to hide.

💍Frodo

🌿Samwise

👑Aragorn

🔥Gandalf

🏹Legolas

⚒️Gimli

👁️Sauron

🪨Gollum

01

You are handed a responsibility that could destroy you. What do you do?
The weight of the world falls on unlikely shoulders.




02

Your closest companion is heading into terrible danger. You:
True loyalty is revealed not in comfort, but in crisis.




03

Enormous power is within your reach. Your instinct is:
Power corrupts — but only those who reach for it.




04

What does “home” mean to you?
Where we long to return reveals who we truly are.




05

When a battle is upon you, your approach is:
War reveals what we are made of — whether we like it or not.




06

Someone comes to you for advice in their darkest hour. You:
Wisdom is not knowing all the answers — it’s knowing which questions to ask.




07

How do you see yourself, honestly?
Self-knowledge is the most dangerous kind.




08

Which of these best describes your relationship with the natural world?
Middle-earth speaks to those who know how to listen.




09

You encounter a wretched, pitiable creature who has done terrible things. You:
How we treat the fallen reveals the height of our character.




10

When the quest is over and the songs are sung, what do you hope they say about you?
In the end, we are all just stories.




The Fellowship Has Spoken
Your Place in Middle-earth

The scores below reveal your true character. Your highest number is your match. Even a tie tells a story — the Fellowship was never made of simple people.

💍
Frodo

🌿
Samwise

👑
Aragorn

🔥
Gandalf

🏹
Legolas

⚒️
Gimli

👁️
Sauron

🪨
Gollum

You carry something heavy — and you carry it alone, even when you don’t have to. You were not born for greatness, and that is precisely why greatness chose you. Your courage is not the roaring, sword-swinging kind; it is quiet, stubborn, and terrifying in its refusal to quit. The Ring weighs on you more than anyone can see, and still you walk toward the fire. That is not weakness. That is the rarest kind of strength there is.

You are, without question, the best of them. Not the most powerful, not the most celebrated — but the most essential. Your loyalty is not a trait; it is a force of nature. You would carry the person you love up the slopes of Mount Doom if it came to that, and we both know you’d do it without being asked. The world needs more people like you, and the world is lucky it has even one.

You were born to lead, and you have spent years running from it. The crown is yours by right, but you know better than anyone that right means nothing without the will and the worthiness to back it up. You are tempered by loss, shaped by long roads, and defined by a code of honour you hold to even when no one is watching. When you finally step forward, the world shifts. Because it was always waiting for you.

You have seen more than you let on, and you say less than you know — which is exactly as it should be. You are a catalyst: you do not fight the battles yourself, you ignite the people who can. Your wisdom comes not from books but from an age of watching what happens when it is ignored. You arrive precisely when you mean to, and your presence alone changes what is possible. A wizard is never late.

Graceful, perceptive, and almost preternaturally calm under pressure — you see things others miss and act before others react. You do not need to make a scene to be remarkable; your presence speaks for itself. You are loyal to those you choose to stand beside, and that choice is not made lightly. You have lived long enough to know that the most beautiful things in this world are also the most fragile, and that is why you fight to protect them.

You are loud, proud, and absolutely formidable — and beneath all of that is one of the most fiercely loyal hearts in Middle-earth. You don’t do anything by half measures. Your friendships are forged like iron, your grudges run as deep as mines, and your courage in battle is the kind that makes legends. You came into this fellowship suspicious of everyone and ended it willing to die for an elf. That is not a small thing. That is everything.

You think in centuries and act in absolutes. Order, dominion, control — not because you are cruel by nature, but because you have decided that the world left to itself always falls apart, and you are the only one with the vision and the will to hold it together. You were not always this. Something was lost, or taken, or betrayed, and the version of you that stands now is the answer to that wound. The tragedy is that you’re not entirely wrong — just entirely too far gone to course-correct.

You are a study in contradiction — pitiable and dangerous, cunning and broken, capable of both cruelty and something that once resembled love. You are defined by loss: of innocence, of self, of the one thing that gave your existence meaning. Two voices war inside you constantly, and the tragedy is that the better one sometimes wins, just not often enough, and never at the right moment. You are a warning, yes — but also a mirror. We are all a little Gollum, given the right ring and enough time.

Was ‘Ever After’ a Box Office Hit?

A huge hit with critics, with the movie even winning several prizes including two Saturn Awards, could Ever After turn that praise into box office success? Made for a reported $26 million, the movie returned just shy of $100 million at the box office, split between $66 million in domestic revenue and a further $22 million from overseas markets. In its opening weekend, Ever After finished 5th in the American box office ranks, falling short of big competition from the likes of There’s Something About Mary and Saving Private Ryan.

Ever After is a streaming hit on Tubi. Stay tuned to Collider for more streaming stories.


ever-after-film-poster.jpg


Release Date

July 31, 1998

Runtime

121 Minutes

Director

Andy Tennant

Writers

Susannah Grant, Andy Tennant, Rick Parks



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