Picture: Netflix
There is a common myth amongst Netflix critics: Films released on Netflix sink to the depths of the catalog a week after their release, never to be heard of again—no one watches them!” Is that actually true?
For the past two years, Netflix has been publishing its Engagement Reports every six months, detailing the viewership for over 18,000 titles each semester across the globe, 99% of everything watched globally on Netflix. This provides ample data to answer the question of a film’s long-tail viewership months and even years after its release on Netflix.
As a reminder, you can browse through combined and individual Netflix Engagement Reports with ease using our search tool.
For this report, we’re focused on US-produced films available on Netflix globally and released before December 31, 2021.
- Why only American films? They are inherently the most well-known and are often at the center of these criticisms, especially when renowned filmmakers decide to make their next film with Netflix. Of course, these films also tend to be the most-watched, so keep in mind that the figures presented here are naturally higher than those for international films—but that makes sense. However, as you’ll see, we also go right to the bottom of the Engagement Reports with some films, so we have a pretty good overview of the whole range of viewership.
- Why only globally available films? Because titles that are Netflix films in only certain countries have lower viewership numbers by default. Moreover, these films may arrive in some other countries long after their initial release elsewhere, artificially inflating their total viewership figures over time.
- Why films released before December 31, 2021? Because this study aims to analyze the long-tail performance of Netflix films, waiting at least a year after a film’s release seems like a reasonable threshold for assessing long-term viewership.
Overview of Films
A total of 276 American Netflix Original films meet the criteria set for this study, providing a substantial sample for analysis. Let’s start with a general overview: these 276 American films released before 2022 accumulated approximately 3,842,300,000 complete viewings over two years—three billion, eight hundred forty-two million, three hundred thousand viewings in 729 days.
I say “approximately” because some of these films no longer appeared in the Engagement Reports, meaning they had fewer than 100,000 viewings per semester. Fewer than 100,000 does not mean zero, but this is negligible in the grand scheme of things. That still leaves 3.8 billion complete viewings, which breaks down to 5.27 million per day, 220,000 per hour, or 3,660 per minute, sustained over two years for these “old” American Netflix films.
It’s hard to grasp just how massive and significant this long-tail viewership is, but one thing is clear: no, Netflix’s older films are not hidden by the algorithm or buried deep in the catalog, never to be watched again. That said, it is still a long tail, meaning there is a natural decline. Of the 276 films analyzed, 143 experienced a steady decline in viewership across each semester of 2023 and 2024—an average drop of 33% per period. This steady decline eventually causes some films to disappear from the Engagement Reports altogether, as they fall below the 100,000 EVCs threshold per semester.
By the second half of 2024, 14 of the 276 films had dropped off the Engagement Report, representing 5.1% of the dataset.
Among the 14 films from the 2015–2021 period that were absent from the Engagement Report in the second half of 2024, the most recent one was Mank, released in December 2020. David Fincher’s black-and-white biopic about a 1940s filmmaker was never the most commercially appealing title despite its prestigious director. Black-and-white films, in general, don’t perform well on Netflix, making Mank’s disappearance less surprising.
Only one US Netflix Original film released before 2022 never appeared in any of the four Engagement Reports from 2023 and 2024: Tigertail, directed by Alan Yang and released in April 2020. The film tells the story of a Taiwanese immigrant in the United States reflecting on his life. My suspicion is that Tigertail is viewed more as an Asian film than an American one, which may explain its lower visibility in the Engagement Reports. Internationally, a much larger number of films have fallen below the reporting threshold.
Most-Watched American Netflix Films Released Before 2022 in 2023 and 2024.
Rather than focusing on films that never made it into the Engagement Reports, let’s look at those that did—and did so impressively. Here’s the Top 40 ranking of the most-watched American Netflix films released before 2022 during 2023–2024.
Several significant categories emerge in this Top 40 ranking of the most-watched American Netflix films released before 2022 during the 2023–2024 period:
- Animated films for children. There are eight in the Top 40, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, given how animation on streaming services has become the new babysitter. We see the same trend on Disney+ in the Nielsen rankings, so it makes sense that Netflix’s animated films also show strong long-term performance.
- Live-action kids’ films. The same logic applies here, but it’s surprising to see We Can Be Heroes by Robert Rodriguez take the top spot as the most-watched American Netflix film from before 2022 in the 2023–2024 period, with nearly 120 million CVEs—an enormous number.
- Romance (teen and adult). Netflix is often credited with reviving the genre, and this ranking confirms its ongoing strength. Eight romance films made the Top 40, including two from The Kissing Booth series and two from To All the Boys….
- Action films starring major actors. Put Dwayne Johnson, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Wahlberg, Ryan Reynolds, Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, or Jamie Foxx in an action movie, and you have a long-term hit.
- Films that have been or are in Netflix’s all-time Top 10. One of the most interesting observations is that a strong debut often translates into long-term success. Red Notice, Bird Box, We Can Be Heroes, and Don’t Look Up all rank among Netflix’s all-time Top 10, meaning they had one of the biggest 91-day debuts ever. But they also continue to perform well years later, especially Red Notice, suggesting that audiences don’t necessarily grow tired of rewatching blockbuster hits. Given Netflix’s 300 million paying subscribers, there’s always a new audience discovering them. Red Notice had 230 million CVEs in its first three months (through early February 2022), then 61.9 million in 2023 and 55 million in 2024. In total, it has likely surpassed 400 million CVEs. Not bad for a film that critics widely panned.
- Prestige films. Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman continues to rack up views years after its release. The Harder They Fall is another unexpected prestige entry in the Top 40. But these are exceptions rather than the rule, as prestige films generally rank near the bottom.
- Unclassifiable surprises. Who would have predicted that the comedy The Wrong Missy or Feel the Beat would rank so high? Certainly not me. The same goes for Army of Thieves having a better hold than Army of the Dead, the original film in that universe.
What factors reignite the viewership of a film released years ago?
Pictures: Netflix
As mentioned, nearly half of the films in my dataset have experienced at least one semester of growth compared to the previous one, showing that for a number of films, this long tail can be “reactivated” through more or less clear factors.
Seasonality
Christmas movies perform much better in the year’s second half than in the first, which is completely normal. Take the particularly striking example of The Christmas Chronicles by Chris Columbus. Halloween also boosts horror films, such as the Fear Street trilogy, or films with Halloween in the title during the second half of the year, such as Hubie Halloween with Adam Sandler, which always gain viewership in the second semester compared to the first. The only holiday it doesn’t work quite as well with is Valentine’s Day with most romance and rom-coms not receiving big bumps in that first half of the year.
Releasing a Sequel
Releasing a sequel is still the best way to reignite the viewership of a film losing momentum. We have a few examples of this, such as Murder Mystery and Extraction. So, let’s play my favorite (and easy) game: in the following chart, can you spot when the release of the Extraction sequel was?
We can also categorize spin-offs in this context, taking as an example the impact of the release of the series XO, Kitty in the first half of 2023 on the viewership of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. However, I find it harder to explain the increase throughout 2024.
The Netflix Stars
Millie Bobby Brown is truly the perfect example of a Netflix star, and when her film Damsel performed well in March 2024, this success spilled over to her other films where she leads the cast, such as Enola Holmes, which almost doubled its viewership from one semester to the next. It’s fair to assume that the release last week of The Electric State will do just that as well for Enola Holmes and Damsel.
But Millie Bobby Brown is not the only one with that kind of pull. The same can be said for Adam Sandler and others on Netflix. Another example of this is Glen Powell, whose film with Sydney Sweeney, Anyone But You, had a small box office success in late 2023 and early 2024 before its release on Netflix in the U.S. in the first half of 2024. He had previously starred in Set It Up, another romantic comedy for Netflix years earlier, and boom, the film saw a resurgence in the first half of 2024.
External Factors That Boost Viewership
When Donald Trump chose JD Vance to be his running mate, the viewership of Hillbilly Elegy, the Netflix film adapted from his book, also skyrocketed, with a peak in the second half of 2024 during the U.S. presidential election. Certainly, it’s a very specific case, but it’s quite notable here.
The Unexplainable AKA Netflix’s Algorithim
And finally, there are increases that are hard to explain. In my weekly analyses of the Netflix Top 10, it’s not uncommon to see films that were released months or even years earlier pop up in the Top 10 (usually in January as if the algorithm switches to the greatest hits of the past year mode). Successes of films on the service lead to others through recommendations during the end credits, and some films thus have quite unusual trajectories. I can cite examples like How It Ends or The Highwaymen, which exploded in viewership during a semester without a clear reason, only to drop off just as quickly.
What does obscurity even look like on Netflix?
When we say that no one is watching a film anymore, that it has sunk, body and soul, into a catalog that makes it invisible, where do we draw the line? 10 viewings per day? 100? 1,000? 10,000? That’s the real question in the end. To try and answer it, we’ll look at all 276 films (full graphic here) used for the basis of this article and their total number of CVEs for the years 2023 and 2024.
Here’s the all the movies that got above 10M views for that period:
| Title | H1‑2023 | H2‑2023 | H1‑2024 | H2‑2024 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| We Can Be Heroes | 31,400,000 | 29,900,000 | 29,100,000 | 28,800,000 | 119,200,000 |
| Red Notice | 34,600,000 | 27,300,000 | 26,100,000 | 28,900,000 | 116,900,000 |
| Murder Mystery | 53,800,000 | 10,200,000 | 10,700,000 | 9,400,000 | 84,100,000 |
| Extraction | 43,800,000 | 17,800,000 | 11,400,000 | 10,000,000 | 83,000,000 |
| Back to the Outback | 23,500,000 | 19,600,000 | 20,200,000 | 19,100,000 | 82,400,000 |
| The Christmas Chronicles | 4,000,000 | 29,500,000 | 3,300,000 | 32,200,000 | 69,000,000 |
| Wish Dragon | 20,600,000 | 15,700,000 | 16,400,000 | 14,000,000 | 66,700,000 |
| The Mitchells vs. The Machines | 19,400,000 | 15,500,000 | 16,600,000 | 14,400,000 | 65,900,000 |
| Spenser Confidential | 16,300,000 | 12,700,000 | 16,600,000 | 15,700,000 | 61,300,000 |
| Yes Day | 19,600,000 | 15,100,000 | 13,500,000 | 11,200,000 | 59,400,000 |
| The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two | 4,400,000 | 22,300,000 | 3,800,000 | 25,200,000 | 55,700,000 |
| 6 Underground | 18,000,000 | 13,900,000 | 10,000,000 | 8,400,000 | 50,300,000 |
| Vivo | 16,500,000 | 11,900,000 | 12,200,000 | 9,600,000 | 50,200,000 |
| Triple Frontier | 12,600,000 | 17,000,000 | 11,000,000 | 8,700,000 | 49,300,000 |
| The Kissing Booth | 13,600,000 | 10,800,000 | 12,100,000 | 10,500,000 | 47,000,000 |
| The Old Guard | 13,400,000 | 12,100,000 | 10,200,000 | 8,200,000 | 43,900,000 |
| Feel the Beat | 13,300,000 | 10,900,000 | 10,200,000 | 8,900,000 | 43,300,000 |
| Over the Moon | 13,100,000 | 10,800,000 | 11,000,000 | 8,400,000 | 43,300,000 |
| Army of Thieves | 13,000,000 | 9,600,000 | 10,800,000 | 8,600,000 | 42,000,000 |
| The Wrong Missy | 14,000,000 | 8,300,000 | 8,100,000 | 6,800,000 | 37,200,000 |
| The Highwaymen | 7,500,000 | 6,900,000 | 14,400,000 | 6,700,000 | 35,500,000 |
| How It Ends | 9,900,000 | 12,900,000 | 6,400,000 | 6,100,000 | 35,300,000 |
| Fatherhood | 13,600,000 | 7,700,000 | 7,600,000 | 5,800,000 | 34,700,000 |
| Hubie Halloween | 6,900,000 | 13,000,000 | 2,800,000 | 10,700,000 | 33,400,000 |
| Army of the Dead | 11,100,000 | 7,600,000 | 7,400,000 | 6,400,000 | 32,500,000 |
| Bird Box | 9,300,000 | 10,900,000 | 5,900,000 | 5,900,000 | 32,000,000 |
| The Kissing Booth 2 | 9,100,000 | 7,100,000 | 7,800,000 | 7,000,000 | 31,000,000 |
| Sweet Girl | 12,600,000 | 7,300,000 | 6,700,000 | 4,200,000 | 30,800,000 |
| Don't Look Up | 10,600,000 | 8,600,000 | 6,200,000 | 5,200,000 | 30,600,000 |
| The Willoughbys | 9,300,000 | 7,700,000 | 6,900,000 | 6,000,000 | 29,900,000 |
| The Loud House Movie | 9,900,000 | 7,300,000 | 7,200,000 | 5,200,000 | 29,600,000 |
| The Irishman | 8,300,000 | 8,300,000 | 6,300,000 | 5,800,000 | 28,700,000 |
| Project Power | 11,000,000 | 7,100,000 | 6,000,000 | 4,600,000 | 28,700,000 |
| Holidate | 3,600,000 | 11,500,000 | 2,600,000 | 10,900,000 | 28,600,000 |
| To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You | 9,100,000 | 5,700,000 | 6,800,000 | 6,900,000 | 28,500,000 |
| He's All That | 9,800,000 | 7,300,000 | 5,900,000 | 5,300,000 | 28,300,000 |
| My Little Pony: A New Generation | 10,200,000 | 6,300,000 | 6,300,000 | 5,100,000 | 27,900,000 |
| The Harder They Fall | 10,100,000 | 7,100,000 | 5,800,000 | 4,800,000 | 27,800,000 |
| The Princess Switch | 3,500,000 | 10,100,000 | 3,200,000 | 10,600,000 | 27,400,000 |
| The Kissing Booth 3 | 8,300,000 | 6,200,000 | 6,600,000 | 5,700,000 | 26,800,000 |
| The Unforgivable | 7,400,000 | 6,400,000 | 6,300,000 | 5,400,000 | 25,500,000 |
| Enola Holmes | 8,100,000 | 5,800,000 | 6,400,000 | 4,900,000 | 25,200,000 |
| Secret Obsession | 4,900,000 | 3,900,000 | 9,100,000 | 6,900,000 | 24,800,000 |
| Kate | 9,500,000 | 6,200,000 | 5,000,000 | 3,500,000 | 24,200,000 |
| The Guilty | 10,700,000 | 5,000,000 | 4,300,000 | 4,200,000 | 24,200,000 |
| Intrusion | 7,500,000 | 6,300,000 | 4,400,000 | 5,400,000 | 23,600,000 |
| El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie | 7,700,000 | 5,500,000 | 5,000,000 | 5,300,000 | 23,500,000 |
| Love Hard | 4,100,000 | 8,700,000 | 2,400,000 | 7,900,000 | 23,100,000 |
| In The Shadow of the Moon | 6,500,000 | 9,300,000 | 4,100,000 | 2,900,000 | 22,800,000 |
| Set It Up | 5,400,000 | 3,800,000 | 9,000,000 | 4,000,000 | 22,200,000 |
| Fractured | 7,500,000 | 4,600,000 | 4,700,000 | 5,000,000 | 21,800,000 |
| To All The Boys: Always And Forever | 7,500,000 | 4,200,000 | 4,900,000 | 4,800,000 | 21,400,000 |
| Outside the Wire | 7,400,000 | 5,500,000 | 4,900,000 | 3,300,000 | 21,100,000 |
| Falling Inn Love | 6,100,000 | 4,600,000 | 5,300,000 | 5,100,000 | 21,100,000 |
| Bright | 7,100,000 | 5,400,000 | 4,800,000 | 3,600,000 | 20,900,000 |
| Awake | 8,800,000 | 6,200,000 | 3,600,000 | 2,200,000 | 20,800,000 |
| Holiday in the Wild | 3,700,000 | 5,200,000 | 4,200,000 | 7,000,000 | 20,100,000 |
| Hillbilly Elegy | 2,800,000 | 1,600,000 | 2,200,000 | 13,100,000 | 19,700,000 |
| Tall Girl | 6,100,000 | 5,100,000 | 4,400,000 | 3,600,000 | 19,200,000 |
| The Do-Over | 6,300,000 | 4,700,000 | 4,500,000 | 3,500,000 | 19,000,000 |
| A Christmas Prince | 2,000,000 | 8,600,000 | 1,700,000 | 6,400,000 | 18,700,000 |
| The Perfect Date | 7,100,000 | 4,400,000 | 4,200,000 | 2,400,000 | 18,100,000 |
| The Ridiculous 6 | 6,100,000 | 4,300,000 | 4,400,000 | 3,200,000 | 18,000,000 |
| The King | 5,500,000 | 4,300,000 | 4,900,000 | 3,200,000 | 17,900,000 |
| Work It | 6,600,000 | 4,500,000 | 3,800,000 | 2,900,000 | 17,800,000 |
| Fear Street Part 1: 1994 | 4,400,000 | 5,200,000 | 3,900,000 | 4,200,000 | 17,700,000 |
| Lost Girls | 5,600,000 | 4,100,000 | 4,700,000 | 3,200,000 | 17,600,000 |
| A Fall From Grace | 4,700,000 | 3,700,000 | 4,700,000 | 4,500,000 | 17,600,000 |
| Sextuplets | 5,800,000 | 4,400,000 | 3,700,000 | 3,500,000 | 17,400,000 |
| Thunder Force | 5,800,000 | 3,900,000 | 4,300,000 | 3,300,000 | 17,300,000 |
| Resort to Love | 4,900,000 | 3,000,000 | 4,300,000 | 4,000,000 | 16,200,000 |
| Rim of the World | 6,200,000 | 3,900,000 | 3,900,000 | 2,200,000 | 16,200,000 |
| The Babysitter | 5,300,000 | 4,500,000 | 3,100,000 | 3,200,000 | 16,100,000 |
| The Sleepover | 5,600,000 | 4,000,000 | 4,000,000 | 2,300,000 | 15,900,000 |
| Outlaw King | 4,100,000 | 2,900,000 | 5,300,000 | 3,000,000 | 15,300,000 |
| Extinction | 5,000,000 | 3,800,000 | 4,200,000 | 2,300,000 | 15,300,000 |
| No One Gets out Alive | 5,600,000 | 4,300,000 | 2,900,000 | 2,400,000 | 15,200,000 |
| Spectral | 4,100,000 | 4,100,000 | 4,100,000 | 2,700,000 | 15,000,000 |
| Point Blank | 4,300,000 | 2,200,000 | 7,300,000 | 1,000,000 | 14,800,000 |
| Sand Castle | 4,500,000 | 3,800,000 | 3,500,000 | 3,000,000 | 14,800,000 |
| The Week Of | 6,400,000 | 4,100,000 | 2,700,000 | 1,400,000 | 14,600,000 |
| Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans | 4,900,000 | 3,500,000 | 3,300,000 | 2,800,000 | 14,500,000 |
| Dangerous Lies | 4,300,000 | 3,300,000 | 4,100,000 | 2,700,000 | 14,400,000 |
| Like Father | 4,700,000 | 2,400,000 | 5,000,000 | 2,000,000 | 14,100,000 |
| The Ballad of Buster Scruggs | 4,600,000 | 3,900,000 | 3,200,000 | 1,900,000 | 13,600,000 |
| Otherhood | 4,800,000 | 2,000,000 | 5,200,000 | 1,500,000 | 13,500,000 |
| In The Tall Grass | 4,500,000 | 3,800,000 | 2,600,000 | 2,500,000 | 13,400,000 |
| Fear Street Part 2: 1978 | 3,500,000 | 3,800,000 | 3,000,000 | 3,100,000 | 13,400,000 |
| Christmas Inheritance | 1,000,000 | 5,700,000 | 900,000 | 5,700,000 | 13,300,000 |
| The Main Event | 4,500,000 | 3,400,000 | 3,100,000 | 2,300,000 | 13,300,000 |
| Beckett | 3,300,000 | 2,600,000 | 4,800,000 | 2,300,000 | 13,000,000 |
| A Castle for Christmas | 1,500,000 | 5,900,000 | 1,200,000 | 4,400,000 | 13,000,000 |
| Fatal Affair | 4,800,000 | 3,000,000 | 2,900,000 | 2,200,000 | 12,900,000 |
| Night Teeth | 4,700,000 | 3,300,000 | 2,800,000 | 2,000,000 | 12,800,000 |
| The Dirt | 3,900,000 | 2,800,000 | 3,100,000 | 2,800,000 | 12,600,000 |
| 1922 | 5,100,000 | 3,300,000 | 2,100,000 | 1,700,000 | 12,200,000 |
| Benji | 3,900,000 | 2,600,000 | 2,900,000 | 2,000,000 | 11,400,000 |
| The Knight Before Christmas | 1,100,000 | 4,800,000 | 800,000 | 4,200,000 | 10,900,000 |
| Father of the Year | 4,200,000 | 2,500,000 | 2,500,000 | 1,500,000 | 10,700,000 |
| Malibu Rescue: The Next Wave | 3,600,000 | 2,500,000 | 2,300,000 | 1,900,000 | 10,300,000 |
| Death Note | 3,700,000 | 2,700,000 | 2,000,000 | 1,900,000 | 10,300,000 |
| The Last Days of American Crime | 4,800,000 | 3,400,000 | 1,500,000 | 600,000 | 10,300,000 |
| Hypnotic | 4,300,000 | 2,700,000 | 1,700,000 | 1,500,000 | 10,200,000 |
| The Midnight Sky | 4,200,000 | 3,000,000 | 1,900,000 | 900,000 | 10,000,000 |
| Afterlife of the Party | 4,200,000 | 2,300,000 | 2,400,000 | 1,000,000 | 9,900,000 |
| The Woman in the Window | 3,800,000 | 2,400,000 | 2,100,000 | 1,600,000 | 9,900,000 |
| Finding Ohana | - | - | - | - | - |
| The Babysitter 2: Killer Queen | - | - | - | - | - |
| The Princess Switch 2 | - | - | - | - | - |
| Things Heard and Seen | - | - | - | - | - |
| A Christmas Prince 2: The Royal Wedding | - | - | - | - | - |
| A Christmas Prince 3: The Royal Baby | - | - | - | - | - |
| The Princess Switch 3 | - | - | - | - | - |
| The Outside | - | - | - | - | - |
| There's Someone In Your House | - | - | - | - | - |
Of that list of 276 titles, over 115 (46%) scored over 10 million views over those two years which equates to about 13,698 views every single day. The first film on the list, We Can Be Heroes, was watched on average the equivalent of 163,511 times per day for the last two full years. The last film on the list to have been present in the Engagement Reports for the last four semesters, always on the brink of being excluded and becoming part of the 1% of the least-watched programs on Netflix, XOXO released in 2016, was watched on average the equivalent of 447 times per day for the last two full years. That’s the equivalent of 18 viewings per hour every day for two years straight, more than 7 years after its release.
Is that a lot, especially for a film released several years ago? The problem is that we cannot compare it to anything else. How many times is a particular film rented on VOD, bought on DVD, or watched on TV each day on average over a given period worldwide? No idea. The Engagement Reports give us this insight, but like many of the numbers provided by Netflix, we don’t have comparison points that would allow us to put them into perspective outside of Netflix. So, it’s a subjective line that we need to draw.
If a film I had released years earlier was still being watched nearly 500 times a day on average over the past two years, I think I’d be happy with that, but you’re free to disagree.
When we talk about a streaming catalog, especially on Netflix, the image that always comes up is that of an ocean of programs with unfathomable depth, where films sink as soon as they are launched. But this isn’t entirely true, as we’ve seen here.
Each film release creates a wave of viewings that continues over time, more or less strongly depending on its initial impact. Several factors, some predictable and others more mysterious, can reactivate this wave. But if there is a decline, it is not systematic and certainly not immediate. Like a wave, it gradually diminishes—not to sink but to become part of the ocean itself, waiting for a ripple that will make it bigger again.
A version of this post first appeared on the Netflix n Chiffres Substack.
Do you think Netflix movies have longevity? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Rating: PG-13
