Back To The Future Meets Looper In Dennis Quaid’s Sci-Fi Movie Hitting Major Streaming Milestone

Published Sep 13, 2026, 2:04 PM EDT Hannah Gearan (she/her) is has been writing for ScreenRant for over three years. Her deep cinema love traces back to age 11, when she equipped herself with a spiral-bound notebook, rated all the films she watched, and declared herself a critic. About a decade later, she received a BA from Wesleyan University, where she studied Film, Environmental Studies, and Writing. Hannah’s short film, Toxic Faucets, has screened at numerous film festivals, including the Independent Film Festival of Boston (IFFBoston). As a Movie News writer now, she draws upon her vast experience studying, making, and analyzing film as she approaches dynamic breaking stories. Sign in to your ScreenRant account One of Dennis Quaid's lesser-known sci-fi titles has just crossed a major milestone on streaming. Quaid has now been working in the industry for a half a century. Along the way, he has numerous notable credits to his name, including roles in The Day After Tomorrow, Far from Heaven, and more recently in 2024's breakout horror hit The Substance. Quaid is also the father to The Boys' Jack Quaid, making him a key facet of an up-and-coming Hollywood star family. It is Quaid's turn of the century hit Frequency that has surmounted a major streaming milestone. Released in the year 2000, the sci-fi film is a time-bending mind bender about a father a son who are connected via an accidental cross-time radio link that crossed three decades. The son attempts to save his father's life, but in the process creates life-altering consequences that he must also undo. Frequency has now been on Tubi's top 10 list in the United States for a whopping 100 days. Frequency Reaches 100 Days On Tubi's Streaming Charts Reaching 100 days on a streaming chart is not easy, especially for something that was released over a quarter-century ago. Even more impressive is the fact that Frequency is not just barely holding onto its title; rather, it reaches the 100-day point in the no. 4 slot, passing more timely titles such as Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland, whose popularity is undoubtedly driven by the release of Michael earlier this year. The film's streaming milestone also comes after the movie had only moderate success in theaters at the time of release. The film grossed $68 million worldwide on an estimated $31 million budget, likely just barely breaking even. The critical response was more solid, though still not phenomenal: the movie had a 70% Tomatometer. Frequency Beat Looper By 12 Years Frequency's lasting streaming success is likely driven at least in part by how ahead-of-its time the film is in its time travel concepts. Over a decade later, Rian Johnson would come out with the cyberpunk time travel film Looper. The plot of that movie was not identical, but it too featured a time travel loop where people carry out events that would significantly alter the future, whose consequences they must then work hard to amend. While a distinct plot, the similarities between Frequency and Looper show the extent to which the Quaid film was influential in the sci-fi genre. Looper would go on to be well-reviewed and a defining sci-fi feature of the 2010s. Arguably, it found some of its key foundations in Frequency, so it's great to see Tubi audiences appreciating the film for such an extended period in 2026.