You probably had no idea movies like « Damsel » and « Lift » were coming to Netflix. But they topped Netflix’s 2024 list of most-watched movies.
When Netflix released a rundown of its most-watched movies and TV shows for the first half of the year on Thursday, its TV rankings offered few surprises. Of course big shows like « Bridgerton », « Griselda », « Ripley », and the final season of « The Crown » all brought in millions upon millions of views.
But it’s top-viewed movies tell a different, more interesting story.
The Millie Bobby Brown fantasy thriller « Damsel » had the most views in the last six months, with 143.8 million. Kevin Hart’s heist movie « Lift » came in second with 129.4 million. The Spanish-language drama « Society of the Snow » came in third with 103.8 million. (Netflix bases the data on hours viewed for every title — original and licensed — that was watched for over 50,000 hours.)
You probably saw all of these movies. But were you waiting in anticipation to see them on the streamer, or did you stumble across them once they were already on the service?
Chances are, it was the latter.
What the top three titles have in common is that they all were released by Netflix with little to no publicity or marketing fanfare. While that might come as a shock, the streaming giant has been using this strategy since it began making original content, especially movies, back in the 2010s.
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Clearly, this new data proves the strategy is working. The Netflix homepage has essentially become its own watercooler destination, directing users to the hottest titles on its Top 10 list and putting its newest releases in splashy top banners, encouraging users to push play first, ask questions later.
