TORONTO, ONTARIO - SEPTEMBER 07: (EDITORS NOTE: Image was shot in black and white. Color version not ... [+]
“Well...that was fast.” That was a phrase that ran through my head while updating this week’s Netflix charts—twice. That’s right: two different movies made meteoric rises on Netflix’s yearly popularity charts in the past week. One of those movies, Stowaway, is currently in the midst of Top 10 dominance, while the other, Thunder Force, might become the first movie this year to challenge We Can Be Heroes for the #1 position in 2021.
What are the yearly popularity charts, you ask? Each day, I track where every movie ranks on the daily-updated Top 10 lists posted by Netflix. I then assign points accordingly and keep track of each film’s score over the course of 2021.
So how are the yearly charts shaping up this week? As of May 1, these have been the 25 most popular movies on Netflix in 2021 (the bolded selections are newcomers to this list):
- We Can Be Heroes - 355 points
- The Secret Life of Pets 2 - 221 points
- Thunder Force - 187 points
- Yes Day - 176 points
- Bigfoot Family - 171 points
- I Care a Lot - 169 points
- The Little Rascals - 166 points
- War Dogs - 139 points
- Finding ‘Ohana - 138 points
- The Vanished - 124 points
- To All the Boys: Always and Forever - 118 points
- Homefront - 115 points
- Synchronic - 113 points
- 17 Again - 109 points
- Outside the Wire - 109 points
- The Dark Knight - 102 points
- Deadly Illusions - 97 points
- Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal - 93 points
- Good Burger - 91 points
- Unknown - 90 points
- Parker - 90 points
- Bad Trip - 88 points
- Savages - 88 points
- The Next Three Days - 88 points
- Stowaway - 87 points
Click here if you’d like to see the 2021 show rankings as well.
Thanks to a strong debut, Stowaway became the sixth movie this year and the seventeenth movie ever to capture a perfect week—aka seven consecutive days atop the Top 10 charts. With now 87 points under its belt, the sci-fi film made quick work of getting on the 2021 charts—a feat that would take at least two weeks for most movies at this point in the year.
The other newcomer to the list is Synchronic, which enjoyed its first 13 days on the Top 10 list (the film has since fallen off). The first six of those days were spent in the first-place position, and the movie has managed to net some decent thereafter. If Synchronic can make its way back onto the Top 10 charts for a couple more days, then there’s a chance it’ll surpass The Vanished and crack the top ten for the year.
The biggest story this week, though, is Thunder Force. Today marks the superhero film’s 22nd straight day on the Top 10 charts. During that time, Thunder Force has ranked highly, which allowed it to catapult up the yearly rankings rather quickly (last week the film sat in eighth place). The movie has already passed Yes Day, which itself captured 22 chart appearances earlier this year.
The only other notable change was The Little Rascals rising from tenth place last week to seventh place this week. The children’s movie has made spent 24 consecutive appearances on the daily Top 10 charts, and will likely very likely break into the top five on the yearly list if this keeps up.
There were two casualties this week. Concrete Cowboy (which currently owns 84 points) was knocked off the list after a rather short run, while The Dig (87 points) was booted after spending two months on the yearly charts.
These rankings will continue to be updated weekly, so stay tuned next week to see which movies have moved up and down the list.
