A Hilarious Zac Efron Movie Is Crushing It On Streaming

Neighbors, starring Zac Efron, is currently #3 on the HBO Max streaming list.

By Douglas Helm | Published

Neighbors is one of Zac Efron’s best movies and easily his most hilarious comedy. Now the 2014 film is killing it on the streaming charts, climbing up to #3 on HBO Max. If you’re looking for a movie that brings the laughs, this could be the perfect film to throw on this week.

Neighbors stars Zac Efron as Teddy Sanders, the president of the frat that moves next door to Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne). The Radner’s have a newborn baby and living next to the rowdy frat is difficult, to say the least, so they start enacting plans to bring the frat down. The film was the perfect comedic vehicle for Efron, who showed he could be more than just the High School Musical heartthrob.

Neighbors was directed by Nicholas Stoller with a script by Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O’Brien. Zac Efron, Seth Rogen, and Rose Byrne star. The rest of the cast is rounded out by Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Dave Franco, Ike Barinholtz, Carla Gallo, Jerrod Carmichael, and Lisa Kudrow.

Neighbors was a smash hit for Zac Efron and Seth Rogen, raking in $270.7 million worldwide against a budget of $18 million. Surprisingly, this made Neighbors the highest-grossing live-action film in Seth Rogen’s filmography. With incredible success like that, it was no surprise that Neighbors got a sequel in 2016 with Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising.

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Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising saw Zac Efron, Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, and many other cast members return as they went up against a wild sorority led by Chloe Grace Moretz’s Shelby. Nicholas Stoller returned to direct with O’Brien and Cohen returning for script duties alongside Rogen and Evan Goldberg. The film didn’t achieve quite the same level of success, but still brought in an impressive box office haul of $108.8 million worldwide against a budget of $35 million.

The original Neighbors was critically and commercially well-received, with a 73% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 63% audience score. Zac Efron in particular was praised for his previously unknown comedic chops. Efron’s career was pretty hit-or-miss following his High School Musical films, but this was definitely a bonified hit for the actor.

Since appearing in Neighbors and the sequel, Zac Efron has had a diverse array of roles ranging from comedy to drama. Some notable entries to his filmography were the musical The Greatest Showman, a starring role in Baywatch, and his turn as Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. Efron also had a pretty busy 2022.

In 2022 alone, Zac Efron starred in three different films including Gold, Firestarter, and The Greatest Beer Run Ever. Gold was an Australian survival film that starred Efron as a man who discovers the largest gold nugget ever found and has to guard it against thieves. Firestarter was a Stephen King adaptation that starred Efron as the father of a young girl with pyrokinesis (Ryan Kiera Armstrong).

The Greatest Beer Run Ever saw Peter Farrelly return to the director’s chair for his first feature film since the Oscar-winning Green Book in 2018. Though reviews have been pretty mixed, Zac Efron is receiving praise for his performance as a man who goes to the front lines during the Vietnam War to deliver his friends a can of their favorite beer. The movie is based on a true story and also stars Russell Crowe, Bill Murray, Jake Picking, Will Hochman, and more.

Of course, Zac Efron has plenty of projects on the way with one of the most interesting being The Iron Claw. Efron is in the midst of filming The Iron Claw right now with a cast that also includes Lily James, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Holt McCallany, Cazzey Louis Cereghino, Stanley Simons, and Kevin Anton. The Iron Claw is written and directed by Sean Durkin and will tell the story of the Von Erichs, a dynasty of wrestlers in the 1960s.

While there aren’t any solid release dates for Zac Efron’s future projects at this time, Neighbors is ready for you to stream right now on HBO Max. If you missed this one or if you haven’t seen it in a long time, it’s worth checking out. Stay tuned for more news about Efron’s upcoming projects.