In the third week of February, Netflixreleased an update to their homepage which has become an interesting barometer for what users on the service are tuning into. The overall "Top 10" list reveals which movies and shows are being tuned into the most across the entire streaming service with additional lists for the Top 10 television shows and Top 10 movies being watched available as well. Some trends have popped up across the lists since they arrived just over 100 days ago, but a surprising event happened today on the United States' Top 10 movies list: Not a single Netflix Original Movie appeared on today's ranking.
One thing is abundantly clear after looking at the data for all three of the Netflix Top 10 lists in the United States since they launched, users tend to gravitate towards television over movies. Across the 102 days that the Top 10 lists have been active and updating, a feature film has only been the #1 spot on Netflix 25 times in the US with television taking the #1 position the other 77 days.
Though movies are featured throughout the overall Top 10 list, it's heavily dominated by television and primarily Netflix originals. For the month of May alone, the average Top 10 across all of Netflix in the US featured less than 3.5 movies, their appearance frequently tied to the debut of an original film with only a handful of acquisition titles making the list. In fact, of the 25 times movies were in the #1 slot only five of these instances have been movies that were not Netflix originals (Despicable Me four times and Uncut Gems once). Only 9 of the 77 times a TV show was at #1 were shows that weren't Netflix originals as well (The CW's All American for four days in March and Avatar: The Last Airbender for five days last month).
Over the past two weeks the Top 10 movies list in the US has slowly been dominated by movies Netflix has acquired the streaming rights to with their original content slowly being phased out, due in part in recent days to their new additions for June. Though original movies like The Wrong Missy and The Lovebirds both snagged the #1 position for some time, they've been overturned by the Adam Sandler led Uncut Gems and in recent days the 2017 faith-based movie The Healer has taken the top spot. Furthermore, new June titles like Priest and The Help immediately hit the Top 10 after landing on the service, with the later the current #1 movie.
The Top 10 lists are updated every day by Netflix, so tomorrow might be a different story, but today painted an interesting picture for the service that prides itself on viewer retention and creating original content. It's worth noting that tomorrow, Friday, June 5, will see the release of two Netflix original movies, the Hindi-language drama Choked: Pasai Bolta Hai and the comic book adaptation The Last Days of American Crime, either of which could no doubt climb the charts and give them a place on their own Top 10 once again.
Scroll down to see what movies made the Top 10 on Netflix today!
#1 The Help
(Photo: Walt Disney Studios)
"A young, white writer stirs up the status quo in 1960s Mississippi by interviewing Black housemaids and bringing their stories to the masses."
"When inventor Flint Lockwood makes clouds rain food, the citizens of Chewandswallow can feed themselves. But a bowl of disaster is about to overflow."
