With awards season picking up steam, Netflix‘s steady release of contenders has brought a notable influx of viewership to the streamer, with “A House of Dynamite” and “Frankenstein” bringing in the biggest viewership so far. And there’s plenty more on the way, including the third installment of the “Knives Out” series of whodunnits.
Kathryn Bigelow’s nuclear thriller “A House of Dynamite” kicked off Netflix’s awards slate when it arrived on the streamer on Oct. 24. It debuted to 22.1 million views in its opening weekend, and grew to 31.6 million views in its second — slightly exceeding viewership of the Keira Knightley-fronted Netflix film hit “The Woman in Cabin 10” in its comparable first two weeks. It’s an impressive viewership for the political thriller, and it’s not the streamer’s only awards contender to pull actual numbers this season.
While Netflix appears to be warming on its stance on theatrical releases, the streamer’s awards contenders still only have 2-3 week theatrical windows in largely independent theaters — just enough to fulfill the theatrical requirement to be considered for the big awards. So while some hardcore fans could see “Frankenstein” on the big screen (it played in just over 400 theaters, but Netflix doesn’t report box office so figures are unavailable), for most, the only way to see Guillermo del Toro’s film was on the streamer — and they’ve shown up in full force.
After hitting Netflix on Nov. 7, “Frankenstein” scored 29.1 million views in its first three days and grew by 33.8 million views by its second week, reigning atop Netflix’s most-watched English-language films list for both of its available weeks.
This scheduling strategy isn’t necessarily new for Netflix — the streamer usually rolls out its awards-contending films in the October-December corridor — but 2025 has had a more successful clip of movies so far. And a rising tide lifts all boats: Despite the debut of “Frankenstein,” “A House of Dynamite” still enjoyed solid residual viewership in its third and fourth week on the streamer, which scored 10.2 million and 4.3 million views, respectively.
Edward Berger’s “Ballad of a Small Player,” which debuted on Netflix on Oct. 29, didn’t make as much of a viewership splash as “A House of Dynamite” or “Frankenstein,” but still had a solid debut with 6.9 million views in its opening weekend, landing as the fourth most-watched English-language movie during the week of Oct. 27. It slid down to 4.9 million views by the next week as the No. 7 movie of the week of Nov. 3, but by the third week on the streamer, it fell off the list.
Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” however, barely made a splash following its Nov. 14 debut on the streamer, with the Zoey Deutch-led film about the making of French New Wave classic “Breathelss” not appearing in Netflix’s top 10 films list for the week of Nov. 10.
Netflix does not release viewership data for programs outside of the top 10 until its semi-annual data dump, but it’s safe to assume the film drummed up less than 3.5 million views in its opening weekend — the viewership of the No. 10 most-watched movie on the list. Not a total surprise for a black-and-white movie that’s largely in French.
As Netflix scatters out its awards contenders across the fall months, the streamer still has to debut Clint Bentley’s acclaimed drama “Train Dreams” and the George Clooney-led “Jay Kelly,” which hit the streamer on Friday and Dec. 5, respectively, after limited theatrical runs.
And of course, “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” is guaranteed to bring in a substantial audience when it lands on Netflix on Dec. 12 following a two-week theatrical run that begins Nov. 26. (“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” debuted atop the most-watched film chart when it debuted back in December 2022.)
While this story focuses on live-action contenders for the main awards categories, we would be remiss not to note the astronomical viewership of “KPop Demon Hunters,” which has been circulating as an undeniable contender for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, as well as in the original song category for “Golden.” The film is notably not eligible for consideration at next year’s BAFTAs, however, as its limited US-only theatrical run following its release was not enough to meet that awards body’s qualifications.
“KPop Demon Hunters” stands as Netflix’s most-watched movie to date with a whopping 325.1 million views since its June release, and recently spent its 22nd week on Netflix’s top 10 charts, where the animated favorite consistently ranks within the week’s top three movies, viewership-wise.
Mark Harmon’s guest spot boosts “NCIS: Origins” to series high
The “NCIS” legend’s cameo during the Nov. 11 episode of “NCIS: Origins” boosted the ’90s-set CBS spinoff to its best live-plus-three day audience yet. The episode, which kicked off a crossover event with the flagship “NCIS,” drew 6.78 million viewers, according to Nielsen figures, adding 1.2 million viewers from its initial live-plus-same-day audience.
Additionally, “NCIS” scored 7.21 million live-plus-three day viewers — its biggest audience since the two-part premiere in October — while “NCIS: Sydney” reached 4.17 million viewers — the season’s highest three-day viewership so far.
“Live with Kelly and Mark” scores ratings wins with “Halloween Week” | Exclusive
“Live with Kelly and Mark” hit season high measurements during the week of Halloween, closing out the week with 2.4 million total viewers — up 6% from the previous week — and a 1.54 household rating — up 5% from last week, TheWrap can share exclusively.
The syndicated talk show also hit a season high among women 18-49 with a 0.28 rating — up 12% from the previous week — while women 25-54 was also up 2% from the following week to reach a 0.42 rating.
NFL on Fox locks down best start to the season since 2016
The NFL on Fox is scoring its best start to the season in nearly a decade as the games average 19.04 million viewers to date, up 4% over last year’s season-to-date average of 18.24 million. The average was boosted by the average 17.24 million viewers that tuned in for the Week 11 singleheader, which saw a 12% increase over last year’s Week 11, which averaged 15.41 million.
