Why it doesn't really matter if Netflix movies are good (2025)

Back in Action continues to reign supreme as the most-watched Netflix movie worldwide after its impressive opening.

Cameron Diaz's comeback movie recorded 46.8 million views in its first weekend, marking the biggest English-language debut since The Adam Project in March 2022. We won't know until Wednesday how big its first full week has been, but there's a chance it could eventually threaten the all-time Netflix top 10.

As successful as it's been on the streaming service though, Back in Action was not well received by critics. It currently stands at 25% on Rotten Tomatoes and, while the audience rating is higher, 59% isn't exactly a ringing endorsement for the action-comedy.

But Back in Action isn't the first Netflix original movie to succeed in the face of a critical drubbing. Movies being 'critic-proof' isn't a new phenomenon, but on the surface, it seems to especially apply to Netflix movies.

In order to be an all-time success on Netflix, could it be that it just doesn't matter whether the movie is any good – or is there something else going on?

The ratings

The obvious place to start is with the all-time most-watched Netflix movies, based on a movie's first 91 days of release. While the weekly most-watched charts include non-originals, the all-time list is specifically for Netflix originals, so gives the best sense of what is a hit for viewers.

Netflix has regularly changed how it measures success for its movies, but since June 2023, its rankings are based on 'views'. This is worked out by the total time a movie has been watched divided by its runtime, regardless of how many people might have watched it – so if a family of four watched on one account, it's still just one view.

There's also no indication of whether the movie was watched in full, as Netflix counts it as a view when at least two minutes are watched. It's not an ideal situation, but it's all we've got right now.

Now we've got the science out of the way, here are the top 10 English-language movies of all time, along with their Rotten Tomatoes critics' rating and audience rating in brackets. (Remember Rotten Tomatoes' ratings aren't ideal either: a three-star 'meh' review counts as strongly as a five-star endorsement, so it's a measure of critical consensus rather than critical popularity.)

1. Red Notice 37% (92%)
2. Don't Look Up 56% (78%)
3. Carry-On 88% (51%)
4. The Adam Project 68% (73%)
5. Bird Box 64% (58%)
6. Leave the World Behind 74% (36%)
7. The Gray Man 45% (90%)
8. Damsel 56% (59%)
9. We Can Be Heroes 76% (41%)
10. The Mother 43% (62%)

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings aren't really that bad for the most part, but Carry-On's 88% is the only really strong rating on there. It's certainly not an endorsement of Netflix movies that their most successful movies aren't necessarily the best.

But what do the critics know? Red Notice is the most-watched movie of all time in Netflix and has both the lowest critics rating and the highest audience rating in the top 10.

It's a similar pattern for most of the top 10, where critics and audiences just don't agree. Even when critics like a movie, for example Carry-On, the audience still didn't agree and give it the third-lowest rating in the top 10.

Over on the non-English language list, it's a similar story except the most-watched movie, Troll, is also one of its highest-rated by critics at 90%. That top t10 does have a 0%-rated movie in its list, Through My Window, but it's harder to judge as non-English language Netflix movies aren't as widely reviewed.

Back to the English-language top 10 though, and if a movie's quality isn't an indicator of how well it will do on Netflix (especially if critics and audiences never agree), then is there a bigger reason?

The stars

One conclusion is the importance of an A-list star as your lead. It sounds obvious, yet it's clear that if a Netflix movie has a recognisable name, then there's more chance of people deciding to watch [insert star name here]'s new movie at home.

Whether it's Ryan Reynolds (Red Notice and The Adam Project), Sandra Bullock (Bird Box) or Chris Evans (The Gray Man and also, technically, Don't Look Up), nine of the top 10 most-watched movies have a recognisable lead.

We Can Be Heroes is the only exception, although it does have the likes of Pedro Pascal and Priyanka Chopra Jonas in supporting roles. It's this family superhero movie that leads us to the other indicator of a movie's success on Netflix…

The timing

Five of the all-time, top 10, English-language movies were released in December. Even the most-watched movie Red Notice was released in November, so its first 91 days of release would have included the Christmas period.

March is the second-most successful month, with two movies (The Adam Project and Damsel), with other movies landing in May (The Mother) and July (The Gray Man).

The non-English language list is a wider spread, with the most-watched movie Troll being the only December release. It's also less reliant on major names as lead stars and more about the genre with a strong spread of horror and action movies in the top 10.

However, it's also worth adding that Troll wouldn't even factor into the English-language top 10 with its 103 million views falling short of The Mother, the 10th most-watched English-language movie, with 136.4 million views.

Movies can be a Netflix hit outside of December, but it stands to reason that people have more time to watch a new movie over Christmas.

If that new movie also has a recognisable, major star, regardless of reviews, you'll likely want to check it out over the festive period. At other times of the year, reviews might come into play when you only have, say, a Saturday night to watch a new movie.

At Christmas, you're likely looking for an undemanding watch and, more often than not, an undemanding watch is exactly what you'll get with a Netflix movie. (Unless that movie is Leave the World Behind and all you'll get is unanswered questions.)

So yes, it might not entirely matter whether Netflix movies are any good, but exactly when they're released could be the actual key to Netflix success.