July 2021's 10 Most Watched Movies on Netflix
July saw long-awaited blockbusters like Space Jam 2, Black Widow and Old come to theaters. With the major studios releasing some big guns, Netflix had a relatively quiet month for films.
Its major releases were three Fear Street films. All hits on their own, together they give us a glimpse of how Netflix might be planning to change the way movies are released in the future.
While Netflix was quietly innovating the film industry, however, its viewers were making their way through safe fare like Kung Fu Panda 3, The Magnificent Seven and Kevin Hart's Fatherhood. Here is what movies viewers watched this month.
The 10 Most Watched Netflix Movies in July 2021
10. The Magnificent Seven
Amazon may have got the big Chris Pratt movie this month with The Tomorrow War, but Netflix managed to get some Pratt fans too by streaming his remake of The Magnificent Seven, which has become the latest box office disappointment to get a second life on the streamer.
9. Kung Fu Panda 3
Though Netflix U.S. only has Kung Fu Panda 1 and 2, international viewers are able to watch all three. For some reason, however, it is the third movie that has got the views.
8. How I Became a Superhero
Netflix has had mixed success with its attempts to get its own superheroes to match up with Marvel. Shows like The Umbrella Academy and movies like We Can Be Heroes were hits, but series like Jupiter's Legacy only managed one season before getting canceled. French super story How I Became a Superhero, however, seems to be their latest success in the field.
7. The Water Man
Released in movie theaters in May in the U.S., David Oyelowo's directorial debut was a Netflix original in other countries across the world. Ultimately, though, the film has proven to be the right fit for streaming—the movie made just around $380,000 in American theaters, and yet has got a place on this list.
6. Fear Street: 1666
Netflix unveiled a genuinely innovative release strategy this June for the Fear Street movies. The streamer released all three parts of the trilogy within a week of each other, with this 17th-century-set movie, the last of the three to come out. As all three have ended up in the most watched chart for the month, the experiment seems to have paid off.
5. Wish Dragon
One of Netflix's big movie successes in 2020 was Over the Moon, an animated movie bringing traditional Chinese folk tales to life. In typical Netflix style, they followed this up with a number of very similar projects like Wish Dragon, a Chinese-American animation about, you guessed it, a dragon who grants wishes.
4. Fear Street: 1978
The second of the Fear Street trilogy, based on the YA novels of Goosebumps author R.L. Stine, takes us back to the summer of 1978 for a classic retro slasher.
3. Fatherhood
Released in mid-June, this rare dramatic turn from Kevin Hart continues to ride high on the charts—which must be a relief to the studio that had delay its cinematic release multiple times before selling it to the streamer.
2. Fear Street: 1994
The first of the Fear Street movies was also the latest in the timeline, with the cast of typical Netflix teens channeling the Scream-style slashers from the years just before they were born.
1. Major Grom: Plague Doctor
Netflix may be seen as the enemy by many film fans for challenging the dominance of theaters, but one thing has been certain: They have been great for promoting world cinema—a certain type of glossy action world cinema, but films with subtitles nonetheless. The latest beneficiary of this is the Russian Major Grom, based on Russian comic about a vigilante police officer.
