In November 2022, a horror movie with a dark comedy twist from director Mark Mylod took the world by storm. Two years later, The Menu is once again all the rage, but this time as the most popular movie on Netflix for several days running.
If you’ve visited Netflix recently, you’ve likely seen Anya Taylor-Joy staring back at you from the Top 10 Movies list. After making its debut on Netflix’s global top 10 charts last week, The Menu embarked on a rapid ascent, toppling Netflix’s star-studded original, Back in Action, as well as popular kids’ movies like Minions and Boss Baby.
If you didn’t catch The Menu in theaters (or on Max), it stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Margot, a last-minute date of a foodie named Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), who was invited to the five-star restaurant Hawthorne, run by the legendary chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) on a remote island. Getting a reservation is nearly impossible, so the diners are expecting the best meals of their lives. But they end up getting far more than they bargained for.
The cast also features John Leguizamo, Aimee Carrero, Janet McTeer, Paul Adelstein, Judith Light, Reed Birney, and Rob Yang as fellow diners, along with Hong Chau as Elsa, the maître d’. Seth Reiss and Will Tracy wrote the script, while Adam McKay and Will Ferrell produced under their Gary Sanchez Productions banner.
With a relatively small budget of $30 million (especially given the cast), The Menu made nearly $80 million at the box office. It continued to pick up steam once it hit digital platforms and made its way to Max, where it dominated the charts for weeks.
Reviews were widely positive, and the movie still holds an 88% “certified fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Telegraph called it “a dark comic thriller of rare and mouthwatering fiendishness, in which every scene adds kick and savour to the next.”
You can stream The Menu on Netflix right now.
