Netflix broke several records in 2025 with the phenomenal success of KPop Demon Hunters, winning several major awards and becoming a worldwide hit. In second place was Cameron Diaz’s comeback film, Back in Action, which also ranked among Netflix’s top 10 all-time releases. After all that success, expectations were high for 2026, and so far it’s been a bit of a mixed bag, but the streaming service has still had a select few movies make the most-watched list.
Between raging action thrillers and heartfelt dramas, Netflix’s 2026 releases may not be exactly on par with last year just yet, but they have had their successes, with many more exciting titles to come. From the multi-starrer crime thriller The Rip to the sentimental Remarkably Bright Creatures, here’s a look at Netflix’s top 10 most-watched films of 2026 so far, including both originals and acquired content.
10 ‘180’ (2026)
Image via NetflixWritten by Alex Yazbek, 180 is a South African crime thriller that tells the story of Zac, an ordinary family man whose son becomes critically injured after a road rage incident. As an enraged Zac sets out to seek vengeance for his child, his ordinary life spirals into a dark and violent path, threatening his morality and sanity. The film stars Prince Grootboom, Noxolo Dlamini, Danica Jones, and Warren Masemola in the main roles.
180 is a well-made thriller about revenge, corruption, and justice, featuring ample tension, thrills, and suspense, without challenging or reinventing genre tropes and motifs. One of the earlier international releases on Netflix in 2026, 180 did not garner much attention initially, but became a surprise hit for the streamer after it gained global traction following its April premiere. With 30.7 million views worldwide following its premiere, 180 has since become a highly watched but still very underrated Netflix film of 2026.
9 ‘Ladies First’ (2026)
Image via Rob Youngson / © Netflix / Courtesy Everett CollectionDirected by British director Thea Sharrock and starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike, Ladies First is an American remake of the 2018 French film I Am Not an Easy Man by Éléonore Pourriat. The film follows Damien (Cohen), a highly sexist and arrogant ladies’ man, who wakes up one day to find himself in a world ruled by women and is challenged by a female counterpart of himself (Pike). The film’s ensemble cast also includes Richard E. Grant, Emily Mortimer, Fiona Shaw, Charles Dance, Tom Davis, and Kathryn Hunter.
Contrary to expectations before its release, Ladies First opened to polarizing reviews and responses. While genre fans find Ladies First an entertaining joyride that offers a fun throwback to 2000s comedies, the film has also been heavily critiqued for its outdated premise, predictable turn of events, and for underutilizing the star power of its terrific cast. Despite its middling reviews, Ladies First quickly became a global hit, with 40 million views at the time of writing.
Image via NetflixA mystery drama directed by Olivia Newman and adapted from the novel by Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures follows Tova, an elderly widow and aquarium janitor, who lives a lonely life until she strikes up a friendship with a giant octopus. When a young drifter named Cameron arrives in town, he befriends Tova, changing both their lives in significant ways. Sally Field and Lewis Pullman star as Tova and Cameron, respectively, with Alfred Molina, Joan Chen, Kathy Baker, Beth Grant, Sofia Black-D'Elia, and Colm Meaney in notable roles.
A heartwarming story of rediscovering joy and forming long-lasting friendships, Remarkably Bright Creatures has been most praised for Sally Field’s endearing Tova and her lovely chemistry with Pullman’s Cameron and Marcellus the octopus. One of the most highly anticipated book-to-movie adaptations of 2026, the warm and cozy drama is very satisfying and leaves you feeling better about life. Released in May 2026, Remarkably Bright Creatures garnered critical acclaim and had 43.8 million views, but did not make it to the top of Netflix’s charts.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz
Which Oscar Best Picture
Is Your Perfect Movie?
Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
FIND YOUR FILM →
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don't just entertain — they leave something behind.
ASomething that pulls the rug out — that makes me think I'm watching one kind of film and then reveals I'm watching another entirely. BSomething overwhelming — funny, sad, absurd, and genuinely moving, all at once. CSomething grand and weighty — a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I'm watching. DSomething formally daring — a film that pushes what cinema can even do. ESomething lean and relentless — pure tension with no wasted frame.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What's yours?
AClass, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity. BIdentity, family, and the chaos of trying to hold your life together when everything is falling apart. CGenius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back. DEgo, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you're still alive to watch it happen. EEvil, chance, and whether moral order actually exists or if we just tell ourselves it does.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
AGenre-twisting — I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different. BMaximalist and genre-blending — comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, all in one ride. CEpic and non-linear — cutting between timelines, building a mosaic of cause and consequence. DA single unbroken flow — I want to feel like I'm living it in real time, no cuts to safety. ESpare and precise — every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
AA system — invisible, structural, and almost impossible to fight because it has no single face. BThe self — the ways we sabotage, abandon, and fail the people we love most. CHistory — the unstoppable momentum of events that no single person can stop or redirect. DThe industry — the machinery of culture that chews up talent and spits out irrelevance. EPure, implacable evil — a force so certain of itself it becomes almost philosophical.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
What do you want from a film's ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
AShock and inevitability — a conclusion that recontextualises everything that came before it. BEarned emotion — I want to cry, laugh, and feel genuinely hopeful, even if the world is a mess. CDevastation and grandeur — an ending that makes me sit in silence for a few minutes after. DAmbiguity — something that leaves enough open that I'm still thinking about it days later. EBleakness — an honest refusal to pretend the world is tidier than it actually is.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what's even possible.
AA gleaming modern city with a hidden underside — beauty masking rot, wealth masking desperation. BA collapsing suburban life that opens onto something infinite — the multiverse of a single ordinary person. CThe corridors of power and science at a world-historical turning point — where decisions echo for decades. DThe grimy, alive chaos of New York and Hollywood — fame as both destination and trap. EVast, indifferent landscape — desert and highway where violence arrives without warning or reason.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
AProduction design and mise-en-scène — every frame composed to carry meaning beneath the surface. BEditing and tonal control — the ability to move between registers without losing the audience. CScore and sound design — music that becomes inseparable from the dread and awe of what you're watching. DCinematography as performance — the camera not recording events but participating in them. ESilence and restraint — what's left unsaid and unshown doing more work than any dialogue could.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
ASomeone smart and resourceful who makes increasingly dangerous decisions under pressure. BSomeone overwhelmed and ordinary who turns out to be capable of something extraordinary. CA brilliant, tortured figure whose gifts and flaws are inseparable from each other. DA self-destructive artist whose ego is both their superpower and their undoing. EA quiet, principled person trying to make sense of a world that has stopped making sense.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
AI love a slow build when I know the payoff is going to be seismic — patience for a devastating reveal. BGive me relentless momentum — I want to feel breathless and emotionally spent by the end. CEpic runtime doesn't scare me — if the material demands three hours, give me three hours. DI want it to feel propulsive even when nothing is technically happening — restless energy throughout. EDeliberate and unhurried — I want dread to accumulate in the spaces between the action.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
AUnsettled — like I've just seen something I can't fully explain but can't stop thinking about. BMoved and energised — like the film reminded me what actually matters and gave me something to hold onto. CHumbled — like I've been in the presence of something genuinely important and overwhelming. DExhilarated — like I've just seen cinema doing something it's never quite done before. EHaunted — like a cold, quiet dread that stays with me for days.
REVEAL MY FILM →
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it's ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn't want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it's about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it's about. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor's ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn't be possible. Michael Keaton's performance and Emmanuel Lubezki's restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
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7 ‘Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man’ (2026)
Image via NetflixDirected by Tom Harper and written by Steven Knight, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is a British crime drama sequel to the award-winning BBC series, Peaky Blinders, also created by Knight. Set years after the events of the TV series, the film follows the story’s anti-hero, Tommy Shelby, as he returns from his voluntary exile during WWII to reconcile with his estranged son and protect his family and country. Cillian Murphy reprises his iconic TV role as Tommy Shelby alongside Stephen Graham, Sophie Rundle, Ned Dennehy, Packy Lee, and Ian Peck, with Barry Keoghan and Rebecca Ferguson as new characters, and Tim Roth in a key role.
Among all the most-awaited Netflix projects of 2026, The Immortal Man has been at the top of the list, and it has since lived up to its expectations. The sequel opened to rave reviews and fan appreciation, becoming the most-watched English-language title on Netflix with over 50 million views. While it has not surpassed the cultural footprint of the original BBC show, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man nicely bookends the long-running series by recapturing its gritty themes and powerhouse performances.
6 ‘People We Meet on Vacation’ (2026)
Image via NetflixBased on the novel by Emily Henry and directed by Brett Haley, People We Meet on Vacation is a cozy rom-com about two opposite friends, Poppy and Alex, and their evolving friendship over a decade. From their first road trip in college to yearly vacations, the friendship between Poppy and Alex develops into romance, upending their lasting dynamic. The film stars Emily Bader and Tom Blyth as the key characters, alongside Alan Ruck, Molly Shannon, Sarah Catherine Hook, Jameela Jamil, Lukas Gage, and Miles Heizer in supporting roles.
Taking inspiration from When Harry Met Sally and other classic rom-coms, People We Meet on a Vacation is a fun and breezy romance adventure. Even if the film does not reinvent the friends-to-lovers trope, it makes for an entertaining watch with its scenic settings and charming performances. Netflix’s first original film of 2026, People We Meet on Vacation premiered in January to positive reviews and became quite popular among romance fans, garnering 54.3 million views.
5 ‘Thrash’ (2026)
Image via NetflixWritten and directed by Tommy Wirkola, Thrash is a survival thriller set against the backdrop of a Category 5 hurricane that devastates a southern coastal town with massive flooding and destruction. To make things worse, the flood water draws in a pod of ravenous sharks, terrorizing trapped survivors and turning a natural catastrophe into a frenzied bloodbath. The film stars Phoebe Dynevor, Whitney Peak, Djimon Hounsou, and Matt Nable in the main roles.
Thrash takes the key elements of natural disaster and shark attack films and packs them into a high-adrenaline survival thriller. While it is not one of the most perfect shark movies that fans have loved for decades, or even one of the more highly rated films by Wirkola, the Netflix original is worth watching for its many edge-of-the-seat moments and anxiety-inducing performances, especially from Dynevor. Released in April 2026, Thrash met with mixed reviews from critics but amassed millions of fans, garnering 85.7 million views in its first four weeks.
4 ‘Swapped’ (2026)
Image via NetflixAn animated comedy directed by Nathan Greno of Disney’s Tangled fame, Swapped tells the story of two different species, small mammals called Pookoo and majestic Javan birds, who live in the same valley as rivals. When Ollie, a young pookoo, collides with a Javan named Ivy, their bodies get switched, and they are forced to work together and find a way out of this misfortune. Michael B. Jordan and Juno Temple voice the main characters of Ollie and Ivy, respectively, with Tracy Morgan, Cedric the Entertainer, and Justina Machado voicing supporting characters.
The stunning animation style, interesting character designs, and strong emotional themes collectively make Swapped a delightful film, joining the ranks of Netflix original animated hits like Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio and Nimona. The streamer’s second animated film of the year, Swapped has been a surprise success for the streamer, with explosive records. The film secured the biggest debut for a Netflix animated film since 2023’s Leo and surpassed 100 million views, going head-to-head with KPop Demon Hunters to become one of the biggest successes for the streamer so far.
3 ‘The Rip’ (2026)
Image via NetflixNetflix’s 2026 slate kicked off with the Ben Affleck and Matt Damon starrer The Rip, written and directed by Joe Carnahan and inspired by the true story of Miami-Dade County Police captain Chris Casiano. The plot follows a team of police officers on a raid recovering millions of dollars in stashed cash, which sparks a serious internal conflict among them as they question each other’s trust, loyalty, and duty. Teyana Taylor, Steven Yeun, Sasha Calle, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Scott Adkins, and Kyle Chandler also star in supporting roles.
Action-packed, dramatic, and thrilling, The Rip is a throwback to action classics that keep you engaged with its star power and tension. The film instantly garnered attention and acclaim for Affleck and Damon’s chemistry and for making the most of action thriller conventions. With over 100 million views since its premiere in January and a record-breaking opening viewership, The Rip has become one of Netflix’s major films of 2026 and the third most-watched film of the year so far.
2 ‘Apex’ (2026)
Image via NetflixA survival action thriller directed by Baltasar Kormákur and written by Jeremy Robbins, Apex follows an adventurer named Sasha who heads to the Australian wilderness while grieving a personal loss. While exploring, Sasha becomes the target of a brutal, manipulative hunter, forcing her to save herself by any means while outwitting her attacker. Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton star as the hunted and hunter, respectively, with Eric Bana, Matt Whelan, Bessie Holland, and Aaron Pedersen in notable roles.
Another survival thriller from Netflix in 2026, Apex does not reinvent the genre tropes or build on them, but rather collectively uses the conventional motifs. What the film lacks in originality, it makes up for with Theron and Egerton’s performances at their rawest, against the backdrop of the lush Australian wilderness. With 118 million views worldwide since its release, Apex has secured one of the top ranks among Netflix’s most-watched films of the year.
1 ‘War Machine’ (2026)
Image via NetflixA sci-fi action thriller directed and co-written by Patrick Hughes, War Machine follows an elite training unit of the U.S. Army Rangers during their final selection. On their last training mission, led by a staff sergeant, the team is suddenly faced with an inexplicable, otherworldly threat that turns their training into a bloodbath. Alan Ritchson leads the cast, with Dennis Quaid, Stephan James, Jai Courtney, Esai Morales, Keiynan Lonsdale, Jarryd Goundrey, and Daniel Webber in supporting roles.
A blood-pumping alien thriller, War Machine makes the best use of genre conventions and combines them into an action spectacle, strongly resembling Predator or similar brutal alien invasion films. Released in February 2026, War Machine instantly garnered a massive global audience, becoming arguably as successful as Ritchson’s hit series Reacher. With about 140 million views at the time of writing, War Machine is Netflix’s most-watched film of 2026 so far and one of the most-viewed Netflix original films of all time.
War Machine
Release Date March 6, 2026
Runtime 107 minutes
Director Patrick Hughes
Writers Patrick Hughes, James Beaufort
English (US) ·