Topline
Four years-old movies broke into the Netflix most-watched last week as Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon” films and the debut of “Anyone But You”—a critically panned but popular romantic comedy—held onto their spots at the top of the chart.
Key Facts
“Smurfs: The Lost Village,” “Lifemark” and “Hotel Mumbai” all made it onto the Netflix top 10 list for the first time in the week of April 22 despite being older films that were not recently added to the Netflix lineup.
“Smurfs: The Lost Village,” the most recent film in the Smurfs movie franchise released in 2017, spent its first week ever among Netflix most-popular films in the No. 7 spot with 3.7 million views last week, a surge in popularity following Paramount’s announcement the next film in the franchise will release on Valentine’s Day 2025.
“Lifemark,” a 2022 drama about a young man reconnecting with his birth mother, became an unexpected Netflix hit last week despite its initial limited theatrical release and paltry box office sales of $5.1 million.
The movie was the eighth-most-watched on Netflix last week with 3.5 million views.
In the No. 9 spot was a six-year-old action film starring Dev Patel, the actor currently making headlines for his critically acclaimed thriller “Monkey Man,” which was released in early April—the older movie, “Hotel Mumbai,” was viewed 2.8 million times on Netflix last week.
In the No. 10 spot was the 2019 M. Night Shyamalan film, “Glass,” which has been on the Netflix most-watched list since it first hit the streamer four weeks ago.
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Tangent
The second part of Snyder’s “Rebel Moon” series was in the No. 1 most-watched spot for the second week in a row with 18.8 million views, followed by the debut of romantic comedy “Anyone But You” in the No. 2 spot with 10.6 million views. The romantic comedy from Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell wasn’t a hit with critics—it has only a 55% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes—but it instantly caused a pop culture craze. The film became a word-of-mouth sensation on TikTok and was a box office sleeper hit, grossing $88.3 million domestically, blowing past its $25 million budget. “Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp” was Netflix’s third-most-watched film with 9.2 million views, followed by “Rebel Moon — Part One” (6 million views), “What Jennifer Did” (5.2 million) and “Hack Your Health: The Secrets Of Your Gut” debuted in the No. 6 spot last week with 4.4 million views.
Surprising Fact
Patel’s “Hotel Mumbai” is based on real events. The film was inspired by a documentary that told the story of terrorist attacks across the city of Mumbai that killed 174 people in 2008. Among the locations attacked was the luxury Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, where several bombs went off and the hotel’s guests and employees were trapped for three days as terrorists roamed the building. Several heroic stories were told after the incident, including one of kitchen staffers forming a human shield to help guests escape. One man, hotel general manager Karambir Singh Kang, is said to have continued working to save others after his wife and children died in a fire set by the terrorists. Patel plays an employee in “Hotel Mumbai” alongside actors Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi and Anupam Kher.
