The #1 Netflix film within the US is a Michael Fassbender flop with a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes

Take into account this your newest reminder that the row of content material in your Netflix app labeled “Prime 10 Motion pictures within the US In the present day” ought to most likely greatest be considered extra alongside the strains of recency (and never what’s truly the very best). For instance, what do we’ve sitting right here within the #1 spot at the moment? It’s Tomas Alfredson’s 2017 directorial debut The Snowman, starring Michael Fassbender, which was an adaptation of Norwegian author Jo Nesbø’s novel of the identical title.

There are some things to think about right here, so far as why this Netflix film is at the moment performing higher than the Final Kingdom standalone movie Seven Kings Should Die (a film, I’d add, that’s related to a Netflix unique sequence with a big and devoted fandom.) First, The Snowman was an absolute flop. It reportedly made simply $6.7 million within the US, in comparison with a manufacturing funds of $34 million.

Furthermore, each critics and followers appear to assume it’s an objectively unhealthy film. Like, severely unhealthy. Simply take a look at these Rotten Tomatoes scores: It’s acquired a 18% rating from greater than 10,000 viewers rankings, and a really abysmal 6% rating from critics (based mostly on 201 critiques). “Truthfully, it ought to most likely be proven in one in every of your early classes in a movie class,” one Rotten Tomatoes viewers reviewer opined. “Slap on any given scene and ask the query ‘Now which choices did you see that ought to by no means have been made on this or any film?’

“Truthfully the one purpose it even comes away with a whopping(!) one-and-a-half stars, is that minute to minute, The Snowman is so weird, that it truly reaches ranges of laugh-out-loud humorous.”

So, to recap: It was a bomb on the field workplace. Critics hate it. Followers assume it’s rubbish. And but … it’s the #1 Netflix film within the US proper now?

Consulting my schedule of Netflix releases for the month of April appears to supply the reply. The Snowman hit the streaming big on April 16 — so, two days in the past. As a subscriber, it’s fairly a pure conduct to need to zero in on the most recent content material everytime you’re searching for one thing to look at on the streaming big. Typically, that call is even made for you, based mostly on no matter Netflix decides to highlight within the carousel of content material proper there on the prime of your app.

So, sure, The Snowman is the #1 Netflix film proper now — but it surely’s not actually the #1 film. It makes extra sense to think about it because the Netflix film that most individuals are clicking on of the newest movie additions to the streamer. I do know, semantics, however I feel most individuals most likely have a distinct concept of what you imply by “#1 film” in comparison with what I simply specified by the earlier sentence.