Sofia Carson Rules and 'KPop Demon Hunters' Rises While Marvel Distracts But Universal Chickens Out
'My Oxford Year' tops Netflix's weekly ratings, but 'Red Notice' is about to lose its all-time crown. The MCU calls up Spider-Man and Deadpool as Universal avoids 'Shrek 5' vs. 'Avengers 5' showdown.
In two somewhat noteworthy “news nuggets” in today’s Netflix ratings drop, the streamer’s most underrated star is again proving her proverbial “bankability.” At the same time, one of her films just got bumped down a spot on the all-timer list. On the first note, the top English-language flick this past week was Sofia Carson’s My Oxford Year, which notched 27.2 million views in its first whole week (days four through ten) of availability. The film debuted with 24.6 million during its “opening weekend.” So that’s refreshingly consistent, presuming the romantic melodrama about an American traveling abroad to study Victorian poetry who falls for her (age-appropriate) PhD candidate-turned-substitute professor doesn’t drop dead after ten days.
That’s the case with many a high-profile Netflix original. Just recently, Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore 2 debuted with a hearty 46.7 million views, nabbed 40 million in its second frame and dropped to 14.7 million in the most recent week’s worth of viewership rankings. That’s not a criticism, as that’s generally business as usual for high-profile originals or, in this case, sequels to existing (usually theatrical) franchises. And yes, the exceptions to the rule tend to star or at least prominently feature the former Disney Channel starlet via films (romcoms, melodramas and action thrillers) that often get far more viewership than they do free media attention.
As regular readers know, Purple Hearts nabbed 83% of The Gray Man’s 139 million views amid the same period of release on 1.5% of the Russo Bros.’ franchise-starter-that-wasn’t’s $200 million budget. The Life List was the third-most-watched Netflix original in the first half of 2025, just behind Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz’s $157 million Back in Action and the Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown-starring (and also Russo Bros.-directed) $320 million The Electric State. I can’t speak on authority, but I will hazard a guess that Life List was slightly cheaper than those two. Oh, and she co-starred in Carry-On late last year alongside Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman.
Jaume Collet-Serra’s glorified remake of his own Liam Neeson-starring The Commuter on a streaming platform with a much younger headliner, debuted with 42 million views and legged out to 172 million views. I’m not going to say that she was primarily responsible for the boffo viewership, but the term “added value element” certainly applies. I have no idea if the folks at Netflix and/or Carson’s agents have noticed this and responded accordingly. I bring this up periodically because it’s a classic example of how the films and shows that garner the most free media and/or social media discourse aren’t always the ones that generate top-tier mainstream viewership or commerce.