Netflix's 116-Minute Thriller Animals Is About To Steal A Major Win After New Update

Published Oct 22, 2026, 10:45 AM EDT

Cooper Hood is the Associate Editor for all new movie releases, in theaters and on streaming. In addition to writing articles about these titles and upcoming releases, he also oversees content planning for each, ensuring that ScreenRant continues to cover major releases for months after their release.

He has written various reviews for ScreenRant that appear on Rotten Tomatoes, coordinated Oscars and San Diego Comic-Con coverage, appeared on CNN to talk about Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, and done select interviews with talent over the years.

Netflix is finding more success with its new thriller, Animals, pushing the movie incredibly close to a big achievement. Released on the streaming service on October 9, the crime thriller directed by and starring Ben Affleck had hopes of being one of Netflix's most-watched 2026 movies.

However, that was before Animals' reviews were mostly negative. The underwhelming response to the film, which features recognizable stars like Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson, and Steven Yeun, didn't stop there. Animals' initial Netflix viewership was strong (pulling in 23.8 million views in its opening weekend), but not quite as impressive as it could've been given its star power and being a reliable genre play.

To put that into perspective, Animals' debut on Netflix was its 7th-biggest launch for a 2026 movie, edging out fellow crime thriller The Whisper Man's 23.2 million views. With the poor reviews in mind, it was unclear how much staying power Affleck's latest streaming movie would have with subscribers. That made its first full week's performance worth keeping an eye on.

Animals delivered 30.8 million views from October 12-18, making it the #1 movie on Netflix by far, and bringing its total viewership to 54.6 million. That currently gives the new thriller the 14th most confirmed views among Netflix's 2026 originals, putting it well on its way to being a top 10 viewed release for the streamer this year.

Animals Will Become One Of Netflix's 10 Biggest 2026 Movies Next Week

The week 2 performance for Animals helps show how the movie is poised to keep performing in the weeks ahead. Its 30.8 million views were the 9th-best for a Netflix 2026 original movie. However, its 29.4% increase in views was the 4th-best among movies that earned over 30 million views in that frame.

The eight other Netflix originals this year to earn more than 30 million views in week 2 averaged a 58.78% decrease in views during week 3. The record-breaking animated hit Swapped had the best performance, dropping only 31.78% with 26.4 million views, while Thrash had the biggest fall, down 72.17% with only 9.6 million views.

If Animals performs like the average Netflix movie of its caliber in week 3, it should rack up another 12.6 million views. It would then sit at 67.2 million total views. That is enough to surpass the confirmed views of Netflix's 10th-most-watched movie this year, The Crash, which drew 59 million views in the top 10 charts and 65 million views overall during H1.

Depending on how long Animals stays in Netflix's top 10 charts, it could really solidify its spot as a most-watched 2026 streaming movie. Taking the average week-to-week change of movies with comparable viewership, Animals projects to finish with upwards of 82 million views in its first six weeks, which would put it really close to Netflix's #7 movie The Whisper Man (82.2 million confirmed views) and #8 movie The Last House (82.1 million confirmed views).

Animals' Success Continues Ben Affleck's Streaming Hot Streak

Image credit: Warrick Page/© Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection

With a top-10 finish on the year solidifying, Affleck will end 2026 as one of Netflix's biggest winners. He's going to be responsible for two of the streamer's most-watched movies between Animals and The Rip.

The latter was a monumental success for all involved. The Rip still has the biggest debut for any 2026 Netflix movie at 41.6 million views. It's also the only movie this year to stay #1 on the weekly global charts for three consecutive weeks. Considering Netflix doesn't have any other major new movies hitting the streamer this week, Affleck could do it again with Animals.

His new Matt Damon-less thriller may not be as gigantic of a streaming hit overall (The Rip earned 114.7 million views in seven weeks in the top 10 and 136 million views overall during H1), but it goes to show why he's become such an important partner for Netflix. Animals' success ensures even more Affleck movies will come to the streamer, especially after Netflix bought his AI startup InterPositive earlier this year, too.