Another round of the COVID-19 variant this past month chased many of us back inside to family rooms and dens to view more offerings from streaming services. For many of us, that meant hunkering down to watch a family film, a feel-good motion picture, an action flick, or perhaps a sci-fi adventure.
To determine the 10 most streamed movies from May 2 to May 8, 2022, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data on streaming activity fromNielsen, ranking movies by the most minutes watched from May 2 to May 8, 2022. As an indication of how critics have viewed these movies, we’ve included audience scores from Rotten Tomatoes, an online movie and TV review aggregator, current as of mid-May and aggregate scores from IMDb. Data on streaming platforms came from Nielsen and movie release dates came from IMDb.
Seven of the most-streamed films were from Netflix, and viewers reached back more than a few years to satisfy their requests. Among the Netflix offerings was “Forrest Gump,” released in 1994. The six-time Oscar winner told the story of post-war America through the experiences of a slow-witted man from Alabama. (These are the movies that have won the most Oscars every year since 1976.)
Another film from the 1990s, “U.S. Marshals” (1998), is a sequel to the well-received “The Fugitive.” In “U.S. Marshals,” lawman Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) pursuing a man (Wesley Snipes) wrongfully accused of murder. It was the second-most watched movie.
Other Netflix films with crime themes that were among the most-viewed were “Den of Thieves” starring Gerald Butler and “The Gentlemen,” featuring Matthew McConnaughey. “Rambo: Last Blood,” the fifth installment in the Rambo franchise, also found favor with home audiences.
Steve Spielberg reprised the H.G. Wells’ sci-fi thriller “War of the Worlds” in 2005, starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning.
Four of the top-10 streamed movies were animation films, and three of them were on Disney+: “Moana,” “Turning Red,” and the most-streamed movie, “Encanto.” The fourth animated film, on Netflix, was “Kung Fu Panda 3.”
To determine the 10 most streamed movies from May 2 to May 8, 2022, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data on streaming activity from Nielsen, ranking movies by the most minutes watched from May 2 to May 8, 2022. As an indication of how critics have viewed these movies, we’ve included audience scores from Rotten Tomatoes, an online movie and TV review aggregator, current as of mid-May and aggregate scores from IMDb. Data on streaming platforms came from Nielsen and movie release dates came from IMDb.
10. Moana (2016)
> May 2 to 8, 2022: 146 million
> Streaming platform: Disney+
> IMDb rating: 7.6/10
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 89%
“Moana” is a Disney+ animation film about self-discovery, as an indigenous teenage girl sets out on a sea journey to save her people, with the help of a demigod named Maui. Enroute, Moana fulfills her quest for her ancestors and discovers something about herself. Auli’i Cravalho is the voice of Moana, while Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson voices Maui. The film holds a 95% Freshness rating among Rotten Tomatoes critics.
9. Den Of Thieves (2018)
> May 2 to 8, 2022: 169 million
> Streaming platform: Netflix
> IMDb rating: 7.0/10
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 62%
High-octane heist thriller starred Gerard Butler has a hard-drinking commander of an elite Los Angeles crime-fighting unit trying to stop a gang of military veterans leveraging their tactical skill to to hold up LA’s Federal Reserve Bank. Rotten Tomatoes critics found the caper flick lacking, though audiences liked it more.
8. War Of The Worlds (2005)
> May 2 to 8, 2022: 170 million
> Streaming platform: Netflix
> IMDb rating: 6.5/10
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 42%
Steven Spielberg’s spellbinding and often harrowing retelling of H.G. Wells’ classic sci-fi novel has Tom Cruise doing all he can to keep his family safe from alien destruction. Dakota Fanning played his daughter, and fans of the 1953 version of the film will recognize Gene Barry, the star of the earlier motion picture, at the end of the reboot.
7. Forrest Gump (1994)
> May 2 to 8, 2022: 177 million
> Streaming platform: Netflix
> IMDb rating: 8.8/10
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 95%
The history of America from the 1950s through the 1970s is told through the experiences of a slow-witted man from Alabama who encounters celebrities of the day, serves in the Vietnam War, and inspires people with his optimism. The film was a blockbuster, grossing more than $330 million, and earning six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor.
6. Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)
> May 2 to 8, 2022: 215 million
> Streaming platform: Netflix
> IMDb rating: 7.1/10
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 78%
“Kung Fu Panda 3,” the second sequel in the franchise, featured the voices of Jack Black, Bryan Cranston, Dustin Hoffman and J.K. Simmons. Black voiced Po, a fun-loving panda entrusted with instructing oafish, younger pandas in martial arts to battle a supernatural warrior (Simmons). Rotten Tomatoes critics awarded the movie with an 86% score.
5. Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
> May 2 to 8, 2022: 224 million
> Streaming platform: Netflix
> IMDb rating: 6.1/10
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 81%
It’s not too surprising that the scores of critics and audiences diverge on the most recent addition to the Rambo franchise. While critics dismissed the film’s excessive violence with a 27% Tomatometer rating, audiences gave it an 81% thumbs-up. In the fifth film of the series, Vietnam War vet John Rambo fights the Mexican cartel to find his young niece who was kidnapped.
4. The Gentlemen (2019)
> May 2 to 8, 2022: 305 million
> Streaming platform: Netflix
> IMDb rating: 7.8/10
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 89%
Director/writer Guy Ritchie has mined the gangster genre frequently (“Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” “Snatch”), and “The Gentlemen” is his latest effort. In this film, American expat Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConnaughey) discovers that getting out of his lucrative marijuana business in London is more complicated than he thought. The movie also starred Charlie Hunnam and Michelle Dockery.
3. Turning Red (2022)
> May 2 to 8, 2022: 340 million
> Streaming platform: Disney+
> IMDb rating: 7.0/10
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 72%
“Turning Red” was another triumph for the animators at Pixar, with Rotten Tomatoes critics awarding the film a score of 94%. The movie is about a 13-year-old balancing duty and respect to parents with the fun chaos of her teen years. All of which is made more complicated by the fact that she’s turned into a red panda.
2. U.S. Marshals (1998)
> May 2 to 8, 2022: 354 million
> Streaming platform: Netflix
> IMDb rating: 6.5/10
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 53%
Tommy Lee Jones returns as U.S. marshal Sam Gerard, whom we remember as the relentless pursuer of Harrison Ford’s Dr. Richard Kimball in “The Fugitive.” This time Gerard is tasked with tracking down Mark Sheridan (Wesley Snipes), accused of a double murder that Gerard doubts he committed. Rotten Tomatoes critics said the film paled in comparison to “The Fugitive.”
1. Encanto (2021)
> May 2 to 8, 2022: 449 million
> Streaming platform: Disney+
> IMDb rating: 7.2/10
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 93%
The most-streamed movie was Disney’s “Encanto,” clocking in at 449 million minutes. The animated film, about an enchanted town in Colombia, was one of the biggest hits in 2021, as the movie industry recovered from the impact of the pandemic. Critics and audiences alike on Rotten Tomatoes awarded the movie a score of at least 91%, buoyed by the songs of Lin Manuel Miranda.