Emilia Clarke’s 9-year-old film sees streaming boost on Prime Video

Emilia Clarke's controversial 2016 movie Me Before You became a hit nine years after it was first released in cinemas. The film adaptation of Jojo Moyes' novel of the same name cracked the Top 10 movies on Prime Video on the week of June 20, 2025, according to FlixPatrol.

As of June 20, Me Before You ranked at No. 7 for streaming movies on Prime Video in 167 countries worldwide. When the movie made its theatrical release nearly a decade ago, it was a big box office success despite mixed reactions from critics. From a reported $20 million budget, the movie earned over $208 million worldwide, per Box Office Mojo.

The movie made up almost all of its budget at $18.7 million on the opening weekend, and that's only for domestic sales. But despite the box office success, the movie wasn't immune to controversy from critics. With a decent 73% score on Rotten Tomatoes from the audience, it only received a 54% score from critics.

Moreover, Me Before You generated protests when it was released for various reasons. Some people criticized the film for casting a non-disabled actor to play a disabled character, arguing that the movie missed the chance to provide real representation. Other protesters argued for disability rights, accusing the movie of advocating for s**cide for disabled persons.

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What is Emilia Clarke's Me Before You movie on Prime Video's Top 10 movies all about?

Emilia Clarke's movie, Me Before You, is based on the 2012 novel written by Jojo Moyes. The story revolves around the Game of Thrones star's character, Lou Clark, who works various jobs to support her family. She's known for her cheerful and quirky persona, which served her best until she worked as a caregiver to a quadriplegic man named Will Traynor (Sam Claflin).

Will is a wealthy businessman who became paralyzed after an accident years ago. Emilia Clarke and the Bagman actor's characters in the movie couldn't be any more different from one another. While Lou is always happy and energetic, Will is unsmiling and irritable. At first, he subjects her to cruelty and various ironic ideas to get her to quit, but Lou perseveres.

Eventually, they begin to connect and develop a close friendship. However, the friendship turns rocky after Emilia Clarke's character overhears Will's plan to go to Switzerland to commit physician-assisted s**cide. While she tries to change Will's mind and embrace life like she does by taking him on various adventures, she later finds out that she could never change Will's mind.

The movie promises an emotionally heavy story, which was enough to make Emilia Clarke cry when she read the book it was based on. She said in an exclusive interview with Collider in 2016:

"Well, my agent sent me the book first because he knew that the writer was writing the screenplay so he was like, 'Ah! Read the book.' So I did and I cried, and I was three pages in before I was screaming yes!"

In the same interview, Sam Claflin added that he "cried three times" when he read the script.

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Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin's Me Before You is available for streaming on Prime Video.

Edited by Somava