Netflix is one of the most popular streaming services in the world, with over 280 million subscribers. And just what do those people tend to watch? In particular, what is the most popular movie on Netflix? Each week, the streaming service releases a list of its 10 most-watched movies over a recent seven-day period to keep subscribers in the loop regarding its most popular titles.
The Minions are dominating the charts. Despicable Me 2 and Despicable Me are first and second in this week's top 10. Make sure to watch those two movies now before they depart Netflix on January 31. Kevin Costner's Horizon: An American Saga -- Chapter 1 remains in the top 10, which makes you wonder if Netflix will pay to distribute Chapter 2. Below, we've listed the top 10 movies in the U.S. from January 6 to January 12, along with general information about each film, such as genre, rating, cast, and synopsis.
Looking for something else? We've also rounded up the best new movies to stream this week, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Amazon Prime, and the best movies on Disney+. For Netflix fans, check out the 10 most popular shows on Netflix right now.
Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker reprise their roles as Chief Inspector Lee of the HKPF and LAPD Detective James Carter in the second installment of the Rush Hour franchise. Carter accompanies Lee to Hong Kong for a vacation, but the holiday abruptly ends after an explosion at the American embassy.
Lee suspects that his father's former police partner, Ricky Tan, might have been responsible for the explosion. As Lee and Carter investigate the explosion, the duo learns about a counterfeiting scandal that could have major implications for the global economy.
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Ishana Night Shyamalan is the daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, so naturally, the young filmmaker directed a horror film, The Watchers, in her directorial debut. Based on A.M. Shine's 2021 novel of the same name, The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning as Mina, an American whose car breaks down in the forest while traveling in Ireland. Looking for help, Mina finds a woman named Madeline (Olwen Fouéré), who tells her to enter a bunker if she wants to live.
Mina agrees and follows Madeline into the bunker, where she lives with Ciara (Georgina Campbell) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan). At night, Mina learns that the group is visited by mysterious creatures known as "Watchers." The Watchers will kill anyone outside at night. As time goes on, Mina realizes the Watchers are not friendly, forcing her to find an escape before it's too late.
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Before she was an Imperator, she was just Furiosa. Set over a decade before the events of Fury Road, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga explores the rise of Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy), from her days in the Green Place of Many Mothers to her rise in the Wasteland. As a young girl, Furiosa is kidnapped by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), the warlord leader of the Biker Horde.
As he rises in power, Dementus trades Furiosa to Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). To avoid being abused, Furiosa disguises herself as a mute War Boy and works her way up to become the commander of the War Rig. As the Dementus and Immortan Joe fight for control of the Wasteland, Furiosa desperately tries to escape and find her home.
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Guillaume Canet headlines Ad Vitam, a French action thriller that plays like a milder Mission: Impossible. Franck (Canet) is a former member of the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN) who falls in love with his fellow trainee, Léo (Stéphane Caillard). Now, the couple is having a baby.
What should be a time for joy quickly shifts to chaos as masked men infiltrate Franck's house and demand answers for an event from his past. When Franck denies it, the men beat him to a pulp and kidnap his wife. Franck now scrambles into survival mode as he searches for the answers the nefarious group seeks and plans a rescue mission to save his wife.
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The inspiration for Moby Dick comes to the big screen in Ron Howard's In the Heart of the Sea. In 1820, a Nantucket whaling company commissions the Essex to head to sea and capture whale oil. The Essex's crew includes Captain George Pollard Jr. (Benjamin Walker), first mate and veteran whaler Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth), second mate Matthew Joy (Cillian Murphy), and cabin boy Thomas Nickerson (Tom Holland).
After capturing their first whale rather quickly, the Essex goes months without another kill. After traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the crew encounters a massive sperm whale, which sinks the ship. Now, the crew must drift at sea with limited supplies as they pray for rescue.
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Fresh off their success in The Hangover, director Todd Phillips and star Zach Galifianakis teamed up for 2010's Due Date, a road trip comedy featuring Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey Jr. Peter Highman (Downey) plans to fly from Atlanta to Los Angeles to be with his wife Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) for the birth of their child. A
Before taking off, Peter and aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay (Galifianakis) are thrown off the plane and put on the No Fly List following a mishap. Without his ID, Peter must join Ethan on a road trip to California. Let's just say this journey gets out of hand and hijinks ensue.
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Experience the battle for the Old West in Kevin Costner's Western epic Horizon: An American Saga -- Chapter 1. Spanning four years of the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, Horizon: An American Saga follows several characters migrating to the Old West. The ensemble includes Hayes Ellison (Kevin Costner), Frances Kittredge (Sienna Miller), Owen Kittredge (Will Patton), First Lt. Trent Gephardt (Sam Worthington), Caleb Sykes (Jamie Campbell Bower), and H. Silas Pickering (Giovanni Ribisi).
Detective Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan), an excellent cop in Hong Kong, is summoned to Los Angeles to help find the daughter of a Hong Kong diplomat. However, the FBI does not want any outside help, so they assign Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) to look after Lee and keep him out of the investigation.
Both Lee and Carter refuse to sit on the sidelines, so the duo forms an unlikely partnership to track down the diplomat's daughter. This buddy cop film was a huge hit, grossing over $244 million worldwide, and spawned two sequels.
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Before the Minions became a billiondollar spinoff, they were the goofy sidekicks to an evil mastermind in the animated Despicable Me. Gru (Steve Carell) is a supervillain who plots to steal the moon. To acquire a shrink ray, Gru adopts three girls (voiced by Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, and Elsie Fisher) so he can steal the device.
However, Gru begins to feel something he's never felt before: love. Will he continue with his plans, or will Gru accept goodness and embrace his feelings for the girls?
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Gru, the Minions, and the three girls return for more hijinks in Despicable Me 2. Gru is called into action by Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig) to investigate a mutagen stolen from the Artic Circle.
This prompts a showdown between Gru and El Macho (Benjamin Bratt), a supervillain who seeks to rule the world. The sequel to Despicable Me is the perfect family film to watch on movie night. Plus, the Minions are up to their usual hilarity once again.