The Top Ten Movies on Netflix Right Now
Back in February, Netflix introduced its first top ten lists for movies and shows, updated daily with the titles the streamer says are the most popular in the country every single day. I don’t know how reliable Netflix’s numbers are — or how they measure a “viewer.” (If — as a purely hypothetical example — I were to watch 18 minutes of Mortal Kombat and then pass out for the night, does that count as a complete viewing?) But according to Netflix, here are the top ten films in the country on Netflix as of 9AM on Thursday, June 18.
This list is... interesting. The top movie on the most popular streaming service in the country is an erotic thriller that Variety called “a thoroughly terrible, politically objectionable, occasionally hilarious Polish humpathon” abut a mafia don who imprisons a woman for a year in an attempt to make her fall in love with him. Number two is Spike Lee’s outstanding Vietnam War drama Da 5 Bloods. Which makes you wonder: What did Netflix spend on Lee’s Vietnam epic, only to have it come in second to a Polish softcore sex movie?
There are other surprises as well, including appearances by a random Kevin Bacon horror movie from 2016 and the solid slasher pastiche The Guest. Almost half the list is comprised of animated movies; The Grinch is tenth-most popular movie on Netflix in mid-June! Like... how are people choosing these titles?
I truly don’t know. (Okay, in the case of 365 Days, I know.) Whatever is happening, here, I’m finding the Netflix Top Ten lists an increasingly fascinating component of the site. Unless the weekly box office chart, there’s no financial component to the viewing decisions it reflects. What will people watch when money is taken out of the equation? Sex and cartoons, apparently.
Gallery — The Funniest Netflix Thumbnails: