For the 7-day period ending on March 5, Netflix’s list of the Top 10 movies for the US included just two Netflix originals — the new-ish We Have a Ghost, and The Strays. The rest of that list of the most-watched Netflix movies included third-party titles, like The Hunger Games movies and The Hangover Parts II and III. That’s a strikingly small amount of Netflix originals to be included among the streamer’s most popular films in the US. But it gets worse.
As of today, the number of original Netflix movies among the most-watched in the US has shrunk from two to now zero. The list inside the app today is dominated by random titles like Rango, Burlesque, and R.I.P.D. (regarded by critics as the worst movie Ryan Reynolds ever made), as well as The Hunger Games movies. And not a single Netflix original among the lot.
You’d think that with the Netflix original film All Quiet on the Western Front up for a Best Picture Oscar this weekend, at least that one would be on the list, right?
To a certain extent, I can understand why this scarcity is the case: Netflix movies are one-and-done, right? It’s not like a TV show a la Outer Banks, wherein a critical mass of people is watching Season 3’s 10 episodes over an extended period of time.
Then again, this is Netflix we’re talking about. The streaming giant’s library of content is exponentially more substantial than any of its rivals, and to not have a single one of its original film titles in the US Top 10 — well, you can see where some people might argue that speaks to a quality problem.
Most-anticipated upcoming Netflix movies
The glass-half-full side of this reality, meanwhile, is that at least Netflix’s fortunes along these lines will most certainly change soon. And that’s because the most anticipated upcoming Netflix movies include:
Murder Mystery 2
Logline: Now full-time detectives struggling to get their private eye agency off the ground, Nick and Audrey Spitz find themselves at the center of an international abduction when their friend the Maharaja is kidnapped at his own lavish wedding.
Release date: March 31
Extraction 2
Logline: Chris Hemsworth returns as Tyler Rake in Extraction 2, the sequel to Netflix’s blockbuster action film Extraction. After barely surviving the events of the first movie, Rake is back as the Australian black ops mercenary, tasked with another deadly mission: Rescuing the battered family of a ruthless Georgian gangster from the prison where they are being held.
Release date: June 16
Heart of Stone
Logline: Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot) is an intelligence operative, the only woman who stands between her powerful, global, peacekeeping organization and the loss of its most valuable — and dangerous — asset.
Release date: August 11
