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During the current worldwide pandemic, movie studios are no longer providing box-office figures because theaters have been shut down around the nation and the world. Because we are less interested in the actual figures themselves and more interested in what people are watching over the weekends, each week we will dive into Most Streamed and Bestseller Lists on Fandango, iTunes, Netflix, and Hulu to pinpoint the weekend’s most watched films.
This week, we saw maybe most expensive movie ever to premiere on VOD, and if Universal actually manages to score a hefty profit on this, I suspect we could see more “Home Premieres” like the one with Trolls World Tour, even after the pandemic. Even at $20 for a rental, Trolls World Tour topped both Fandango’s VOD chart and iTunes rental chart. I personally know 5 people who shelled out that much money, including myself, to keep their kids entertained for two hours. As a parent, however, I found the movie itself only marginally entertaining, and not nearly as good as the original Trolls, which itself was only memorable for that Justin Timberlake song, “Can’t Stop this Feeling.” NBC also offered all their employees a free digital download “to help provide relief during the COVID-19 pandemic.” If what NBC meant was “relief from their kids,” then maybe?
Meanwhile, the number two film on Fandango’s VOD chart was Like a Boss, a lightweight comedy starring Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne, which is being offered for purchase for $25. The film only made $25 million at the box office, and critics hated it. Interestingly, Like a Boss is also being paired with another Tiffany Haddish film, Nobody’s Fool, and that package is number six on the charts, even though it goes for the same price as the stand-alone Like a Boss. Elsewhere on the VOD charts, Bad Boys for Life and Sonic the Hedgehog took spots three and four, while Invisible Man continues to do very well on VOD at number five, which will make Jason Blum happy.
Elsewhere, Birds of Prey has already flipped the switch from Buy Only to rental, and it still only managed #5 on the iTunes rental charts, behind Doctor Dolittle, also already available for rental. At number two, Matthew McConaughey’s Gentlemen seems to be doing better on the digital market, relatively speaking, than it did in theaters, while Little Women jumped to number three in its first week available for rent. Noteworthy this weekend is the reentry of The Passion of Christ at #16 and Hop at #17 for the Easter holiday.
On Hulu, I now know that their “Most Popular Movies” chart must be inaccurate, because Pete Davidson’s Big Time Adolescence is still the top film, even though Pokemon Detective Pikachu debuted on the service this week. So, their “Most Popular” listing is likely worthless, but they have a really good run of films for pandemic watching, including Big Time Adolescence, Parasite, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
Over on Netflix, Gerard Butler’s Angel Has Fallen — which hung on in the lower rungs of the theatrical box office for weeks and quietly earned $150 million worldwide — debuted in the top spot on Netflix. These Fallen films have insane staying power, and seem to be tailor-made for the Netflix crowd. Love Wedding Repeat, based on the French film Plan de Table, is a Netflix original rom-com that debuted on the streaming service at number two this weekend. It stars Sam Claflin, Freida Pinto, and Olivia Munn. Reviews have not been good — it sits at 20 percent on Rotten Tomatoes — but then again, the Ed Helms’ comedy Coffee & Kareem was obliterated by critics, and it was the most watched movie last week and third most watched movie this week. Netflix clearly knows what it is doing.
Finally, the WWE movie for kids, The Main Event, premiered in the fourth spot on the Netflix chart. Reviews have not been good for it, either (33 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), but it is $20 cheaper than Trolls World Tour right now.
Last Updated: April 12th
With every passing year — with every passing week — Netflix inches closer to a future in which the service streams only original content and eschews outside programming completely. But until that apocalypse arrives, off-the-beaten-path picks continue to hang tough in the under-explored International section of the ever-expanding library. The pickings favor the recent over the time-tested, but a neophyte trawling for something novel to watch can still get a pretty varied crash course on world cinema. Who needs the prestige festival circuit? Give Cannes, Berlin and Venice the slip by trying out one of the best foreign films on Netflix right now.
Related: The Best Historical TV Shows On Netflix Right Now
10. The Platform (2019)
Run Time: 94 min | IMDb: 7/10
This Spanish-language sci-fi flick is all kinds of f*cked up, but in the best way. The film is set in a large, tower-style “Vertical Self-Management Center” where the residents, who are periodically switched at random between floors, are fed by a platform, initially filled with food, that gradually descends through the levels. Conflicts arise when inmates at the top begin eating all the food, leaving the people lower down to fight for survival.
9. Blue Is the Warmest Color (2014)
Run Time: 180 min | IMDb: 7.8/10
There’s a lot of unsavory fog hovering around this production — director Abdellatif Kechiche earned his leading actresses Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize by putting them through an experience they’d later describe as “horrible” — but beneath it all, there remains a shatteringly intense love story. Unformed young Adèle (Exarchopoulos) doesn’t quite know what she wants from life until the second she lays eyes on blue-haired, worldly Emma (Seydoux). The girl’s resulting erotic awakening, graphically depicted in a ten-minute sex scene that forms this three-hour film’s breathtaking centerpiece, is just part of a larger hunger for life. Adèle makes love the same way she cries or fights or eats spaghetti, the same way young people do anything: with reckless abandon.
8. The Invisible Guest (2016)
Run Time: 106 min | IMDb: 8.1/10
This Spanish crime thriller follows a successful businessman framed for the murder of his married lover. A seemingly straightforward plot, until a car accident, a dead body, fake witnesses, and a family out for revenge is thrown into the mix. Mario Casas stars as the man in question, a young husband and father with a bright future who takes part in a terrible crime and is forced to pay for it in the most twisted of ways. You won’t figure this thing out until the end, we guarantee it.
7. I Lost My Body (2019)
Run Time: 81 min | IMDb: 7.6/10
This beautifully animated French fantasy film follows the story of a young man named Naoufel, or rather, his hand which has been severed from his body and spends most of the film escaping labs and trying to get back to its owner. The film flits between the past and present, watching Naoufel’s life unfold from a young orphan to an accidental carpenter’s apprentice — which is how he lost his appendage — all while exploring themes of love, loss, and destiny.
6. Burning (2018)
Run Time: 148 min | IMDb: 7.6/10
Walking Dead alum Steven Yeun stars this psychological thriller from South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong. Yeun plays Ben, a rich millennial with a mysterious job who connects with a woman named Shin Hae-mi on a trip to Africa. The two journey back home together where Ben meets Shin’s friend/lover Lee Jong-su. The three hang-out regularly, with Lee growing more jealous of Ben’s wealth and privilege while he’s forced to manage his father’s farm when his dad goes to prison. But it’s when Shin disappears, and Lee suspects Ben’s involvement, that things really go off the rails.
5. Snowpiercer (2013)
Run Time: 126 min | IMDb: 7.1/10
Chris Evans stars in this sci-fi thriller from auteur Bong Joon-ho. The film, set years into the future following a devastating ice age caused by mankind, follows Evans’ Curtis who lives in poverty on a train that continuously circles the Earth and contains all that remains of human life. Curtis is part of the “scum” the people relegated to the back of the train while the “elite” enjoy the privilege of wealth and status that comes with living in the front. Curtis sparks a rebellion that ends in bloodshed and a devastating reveal when he makes it to the train’s engine room and discovers just how the elite have been fueling their operation. It’s a dark, grimy action piece that should give fans a new appreciation for Evans’ talent.
4. Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
Run Time: 106 min | IMDb: 7.7/10
On paper, it sounds like the biggest R-rated studio comedy of 1985, one of the many bastard sons of Porky’s: two randy teenage boys (Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal) embark on an anything-goes road trip with a stone-cold fox in her late-twenties (Maribel Verdú) and gain a little experience, wink wink, along the way. Except that filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón knows that behind every display of pubescent horndoggery lies insecurity, and possibly even latent homosexuality. The three tease one another in an elaborate performative dance of anticipation before the clothes come off, but once they do, uncomfortable truths not so easily retracted come to light. Between the reined-in performances from the perfectly cast central trio and Cuarón’s unabashed sensuality, there’s a lot to swoon over.
3. Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
Run Time: 99 min | IMDb: 7.8/10
The early aughts action-comedy borrows elements from famous Kung Fu films of the ’70s and pairs them with a completely ridiculous plot and some impressive cartoon-style fight sequences to produce a wholly original flick that we guarantee you’ll marvel at. The film follows the exploits of two friends, Sing and Bone, who impersonate gang members in the hopes of joining a gang themselves and inadvertently strike up a gang war that nearly destroys the slums of the city. Of course, the real draw here is the absurdist, over-the-top comedy that takes place during some of the film’s biggest action sequences. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, but only if you check your brain at the door.
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Run Time: 120min | IMDb: 7.9/10
Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning martial arts flick defied the odds to become one of the most influential films in the genre, crossing multicultural barriers and introducing audiences to some great talents in the international acting world. The film follows the story of Li Mu Bai, an accomplished Wudang swordsman who retires his legendary weapon only to be pulled back into a battle with his arch-nemesis (a woman who killed his master years earlier and seeks to claim his sword for her own). There’s more happening plot-wise — Bai has a love interest in another skilled warrior, Yu Shu Lien, and they’re both forced to face off against a Wudang prodigy that’s been studying under their enemy — but the real draw here is the perfectly-mapped-out fight sequences, which include just enough special effect to be awe-inducing, but not too much to distract from the beautiful choreography that Lee puts on display.
1. Roma (2018)
Run Time: 135 min | IMDb: 8.7/10
Oscar-winning writer/director Alfonso Cuarón delivers what may be his most personal film to date. The stunningly-shot black-and-white film is an ode to his childhood and a love letter to the women who raised him. Following the journey of a domestic worker in Mexico City named Cleo, the movie interweaves tales of personal tragedy and triumph amidst a backdrop of political upheaval and unrest.
