Robert De Niro's New Netflix Number 1 Movie The Whisper Man Continues A Career Tradition

Published Sep 11, 2026, 8:30 AM EDT

Zoë Miskelly is an editor and second in command for Screen Rant's Movies team, having covered the entertainment industry for almost 10 years now. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture.

Robert De Niro's latest thriller movie has hit a major Netflix milestone in a way that has continued a career-long tradition. De Niro's star first grew and was swiftly cemented by film hits like The Godfather Part 2, Goodfellas and Heat, though the actor has been involved in some huge films in just about every decade of his career, as displayed more recently by 2019's The Irishman and Joker, and 2024's Flowers of the Killer Moon.

As a result of De Niro consistently being in critically praised movies - wherein his performance is often one of the more praised aspects - the actor's films have continued to be a source of considerable fan interest, especially for those enamored with the crime, thriller, and action genres, though Robert De Niro has notably also appeared in a range of comedy films as well.

Indeed, De Niro's latest 2026 film has hit a major milestone that marks a key achievement for the movie, and appears to reflect the lasting interest in Robert De Niro's filmography and career, alongside demonstrating Netflix's particular success when it comes to some specific genres and story areas with its movie releases over the course of the streaming service's history.

The Whisper Man Is Netflix's New Number One Globally Most-Watched Movie, Continuing A Career-Long Trend

Netflix

As of Netflix's official records of its most recent week's viewing numbers - detailing the August 31-September 9 period - The Whisper Man is the platform's most-viewed movie worldwide by a considerable margin to say the least. The Whisper Man has been watched 33,400,000 times and for 63,500,000 hours worth of viewing time, which equals out to around 26458 days worth of time in which the film was seen by its global audience.

Given this period's second most-viewed film was comparatively watched 5,200,000 times for a total of 8,600,000 hours, it's decidedly clear that The Whisper Man has garnered a notable amount more success than its other film counterparts during this point in time, since its own views are almost 7 times that of its nearest peer in the Netflix leaderboards.

This success has many factors, but one of the clearest is the pull that De Niro's name still has in the world of thrillers and crime movies, since The Whisper Man - though focused more on the world of serial killers - does delve into much the same territory regarding the dark world of crime that many of Robert De Niro's most famous works do.

Why The Whisper Man Is So Popular On Netflix

First and foremost, The Whisper Man has some obvious star power on its side, given the movie is helmed by Robert De Niro, who is still to this day one of the most famous actors around, and a figure whose name makes audiences naturally curious to see what new films the actor has appeared in.

To add to this, the story of The Whisper Man is also one that has historically done well on Netflix. As a crime thriller, The Whisper Man promises a level of tension and drama that often tends to result in healthy viewer numbers, and this being combined with the intrigue around the story of the movie's fictional titular serial killer no doubt helped plenty of curious viewers take the plunge into watching the film as well.

Taken altogether with the fact that The Whisper Man debuted on Netflix rather than first appearing in cinemas and then later on Netflix, it's no surprise that the film has gotten such substantial viewing figures, especially since this continues to extend De Niro's filmography in this specific and already popular area.