There was never any doubt that Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire would be a holiday hit for Netflix, and the latest global top 10 is proof: it's topping the chart for the second week, racking up 34 million views and 77 million viewing hours. That's more than double the views of the second most popular movie and previous chart-topper Leave The World Behind.
But for all its wonders, Rebel Moon isn't quite as much fun as the film currently sitting at number seven in the Netflix chart. Top Gun: Maverick is one of the most entertaining films we've seen in the last couple of years, and as we said in our Top Gun: Maverick review it "strikes a near perfect balance between heart, humor and jaw-dropping spectacle to earn its wings as a bona fide blockbuster... [it shows] what movies can still achieve in the age of streaming."
It's currently sitting with a very respectable 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, and according to our pals at GamesRadar it is "an expertly crafted, thunderously enjoyable and surprisingly emotional blockbuster." We couldn't agree more.
If you haven't seen either of these movies yet and you're looking for something full of action, Maverick is 100% the way to go.
What other films were Netflix holiday hits?
At number three there's an oldie: Pretty Woman, which racked up 8.4 million views last week. Like many movies of its era – it's over 30 years old – it hasn't aged very well; The Guardian says that while it came out in the 1990s, "it’s as 1980s as Donkey Kong, Bananarama and the Rubik’s Cube... star power takes it much further than it has any right to go."
Number four is considerably less controversial. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget isn't quite as good as the original Chicken Run, but even a middling Aardman movie is much more fun than many other animations. Next on the list is The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which is currently sitting at 59% positive ratings from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes: Decider says that that one "feels like it was written by a calculator" and we think that's not far off. It's a perfectly fine movie, but you're in no danger of getting lost in any depth to it.
In at number six is the sweet Adam Sandler animation Leo, a good-natured comedy about a talking classroom pet who helps a whole bunch of kids learn some important life lessons. My 10-year-old can confirm that it is "very funny" but "has too many songs". Not everyone will necessarily agree with the second part.
Maverick is after that, and then two of the final three places go to films from the Sniper franchise. Sniper: Ultimate Kill and Sniper: Assassin's End are at number 8 and number 10 respectively, sandwiching sub-par kid-flick The Boss Baby: Family Business.
Only Maverick is really troubling our list of the best Netflix movies from the top 10, then (though some will surely think Pretty Woman should be in there), but if you've already seen it 15 times like some people on the TechRadar team have [I use it for testing Dolby Atmos systems, okay? - Ed] check out these 4 new movies on Netflix in January 2024 with over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.
