Following the success of Taylor Sheridan‘s Yellowstone franchise on Paramount+, a string of neo-Westerns targeted at the same audience have found considerable success on the PVOD and streaming markets. Yellowstone star Kevin Costner headlined his own alternative, the well-received movie Let Him Go. Meanwhile, another franchise alum, Neal McDonough, has starred in the films Homestead and The Last Rodeo following his memorable appearance in Yellowstone. Now, another movie aimed at neo-Western fans has defied the odds to emerge as the number-one hit on Paramount+.
Remarkably, the movie doesn’t have an official Rotten Tomatoes score, nor does it have a Wikipedia page. It received a token theatrical run in 2025, but found a larger audience only after debuting on Paramount+. Don’t be surprised if audiences tuning into one of Sheridan’s hit series — Landman, Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King — are being nudged in its direction after finishing an episode or a season.
Following the success of Yellowstone, Sheridan worked on two prequels, 1883 and 1923, and two sequels, Marshals and Dutton Ranch. Meanwhile, other networks and streaming platforms have been hard at work creating their own alternatives, recognizing that the core demographic is underserved and hungry for more. This year, Netflix released two Westerns based on popular novels — Little House on the Prairie and East of Eden.
But we’re talking about the comparatively low-key neo-Western movie Thieves Highway, starring Aaron Eckhart in the lead role of a marshal who uncovers a plot to steal cattle. The movie also stars Lochlyn Munro and Devon Sawa, and is directed by Jesse V. Johnson, who is known for his action movies starring Scott Adkins.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Western Icon Are You Most Like? No Name · Doc Holliday · Wyatt Earp · Mattie Ross
Pick your name, your gun, your horse and how you spend a night in town, and we will tell you which legend of the Old West you would have been. Four icons are waiting at the end of this: the stranger who never gives his name, the gambler who would die for a friend, the lawman who never wanted the badge, and the girl nobody has ever talked out of anything.
🚬No Name(Dollars Trilogy)
🃏Doc Holliday(Tombstone)
⭐Wyatt Earp(Tombstone)
🐎Mattie Ross(True Grit)
01
The town is about to learn your name. What do they call you? In a Western, what people call you is already half the character.
02
What are you carrying? Everything out here is character, right down to what is sitting on your hip.
03
What are you riding? A hero and their horse is one of the oldest relationships in cinema.
04
You have got one evening in town. How does it go? The saloon is where these films quietly tell you who somebody really is.
05
A stranger offers you money for a job that sounds like trouble. Somebody always turns up with a full purse and a bad idea.
06
Somebody is waiting for you in the street. What does the town see? Two people, an empty road, and everybody else watching from behind the shutters.
07
What is the one thing you will not do out here? The code is about the only thing west of the river that actually holds.
08
The job is finished. Where does the story leave you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your icon.
The Dust Has Settled Your Western Icon Is…
Four icons and four completely different ways of walking into trouble.
This is the one you would have been out there, why it fits, and what it would have cost you.
The Dollars Trilogy · 1964–1966
The Man With No Name
You have never explained yourself and you have never needed to,
because people work out fairly quickly that you are the most capable person in the room
without you ever having to mention it.
Eastwood built the character out of everything he refused to do, stripping away the
backstory, the speeches and every bit of reassurance until only the competence was left.
You keep your own counsel, and while other people occasionally find that unnerving, you
have never felt any real need to fix it for them.
The Dollars films work because he genuinely is in it for himself right up until the
moment he is not, and he never explains that part either.
You would be gone before anybody got a chance to thank you.
Doc Holliday · Tombstone · 1993
Doc Holliday
You are the funniest person in most rooms and the most loyal
person in all of them, and you would be genuinely insulted if somebody suggested those two
things were in any tension.
Doc has no real reason to be in this fight beyond the fact that his friend is in it,
which is the only reason he has ever needed for anything.
You lead with wit, and it does a very effective job of hiding how seriously you take the
handful of people you actually care about.
Val Kilmer’s performance is the most quoted in the entire genre because the jokes keep
getting sharper as the situation gets worse.
You would spend everything you had on this and still describe it as a good week.
Wyatt Earp · Tombstone · 1993
Wyatt Earp
You never wanted this job, and you took it anyway because the
alternative was standing there watching somebody less careful do it badly, which is the most
Western reason there has ever been.
Earp is the reluctant authority figure, a man who came to town specifically to be left
alone and somehow ended up answerable for all of it.
You are protective by instinct, so when something goes wrong your first thought is who
is exposed rather than who is to blame.
These films understand that keeping order costs far more than breaking it, and that the
person holding the line almost never gets thanked.
You would do the whole thing again, and you would complain about it the entire time.
Mattie Ross · True Grit · 1969 & 2010
Mattie Ross
Nobody has ever successfully talked you out of something you had
already decided was right, and a long line of grown adults has found that out the hard way.
Mattie is the most relentless character in the Western canon and she manages it through
argument, paperwork and flat refusal rather than a fast draw.
You have no patience for being managed, so you negotiate, you check the details and you
turn up exactly when you said you would.
True Grit is the rare Western where the moral centre is the youngest person on screen
and every adult around her has to catch up.
You would get what you came for, and the film is honest about what that takes out of
you.
Aaron Eckhart Hasn’t Starred in a Major Studio Release in a Decade
Before emerging as a hit on Paramount+, Thieves Highway found tremendous success on the Hulu streaming charts. According to FlixPatrol, the movie overtook the recent horror films Scary Movie, Passenger, and Exit 8 to claim the number one spot on the global Paramount+ charts. It also surpassed the sci-fi movie The Creator. Eckhart has mostly been working in low-budget genre movies in recent years. His last major theatrical release was Clint Eastwood‘s fact-based drama Sully, which was released a decade ago. Eckhart remains best-known for playing Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight, and for his early starring roles in movies such as Thank You for Smoking and In the Company of Men.
You can watch Thieves Highway on Paramount+ and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
