Denzel Washington's R-Rated Thriller Gives Netflix A New Global Streaming Hit

Published Sep 10, 2026, 12:27 PM EDT

Nick Bythrow is a Lead Writer for ScreenRant. He has been writing for the site since September 2022. He graduated from Hampshire College in 2022, where he triple majored in Journalism, Communications, and Media Studies. When he's not writing about TV and movies for ScreenRant and his blog, Frayed Branches, Nick is penning speculative fiction and poetry on Amazon. He lives outside Boston, Massachusetts.

Denzel Washington's R-rated thriller has been brought back to life on streaming, giving Netflix a new global hit in the process. Washington's best movies come from a wide variety of genres, with some of his most notable being crime thrillers mixed with high-octane presentation. This includes The Equalizer trilogy, as well as the standalone thriller Man on Fire. His work also extends to dramas where he's portrayed very different candidates, from US soldier Ben Marco in The Manchurian Candidate to the titular king in The Tragedy of Macbeth.

One of his more recent psychological thriller movies is the 2021 neo-noir crime thriller The Little Things. Directed by John Lee Hancock (The Founder, Mr. Harrigan's Phone), the stars Washington as Joe "Deke" Deacon, a Deputy Sheriff at Kern County Sheriff's Office in California. Set in LA during the early '90s, the film sees Deke team up with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department's Detective Jimmy Baxter (Rami Malek) to hunt down a serial killer. The somber movie showcases their relationship as a team while they try to uncover the truth behind a series of brutal murders.

The Little Things Is Back As A Global Streaming Sensation

Image via MovieStillsDB

Now, The Little Things is a streaming sensation on Netflix again, with the movie becoming a major, international hit for the platform. According to data from September 10, 2026, The Little Things is Number 7 worldwide on Netflix, while also scoring the Number 1 spot in 13 countries around the world: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Solvenia, and Sweden. It's not the first time the movie's earned streaming success, either, having been released simultaneously on HBO Max and in theaters during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Reviews for The Little Things have been mixed, but the performances of its lead cast members has been a standout part of the film since its release. This led to Jared Leto, who plays a key suspect in the investigation, earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor, while it won Best Drama Poster at the Golden Reel Awards. The movie's box office performance was, expectedly, unremarkable: It earned $30.8 million against a $30 million budget.

The Thriller Is Perfect For Mindhunter & Se7en Fans

Image via MovieStillsDB

What makes The Little Things so noteworthy is how the movie is tailor-made for fans of dark, foreboding crime stories. The movie's premise is eerily similar to Se7en, complete with a series of murders that shocks its core investigative duo to their cores. But it also bears a striking resemblance to the short-lived Netflix series Mindhunter, by utilizing dialogue sequences to get into the mind of a serial killer. It helps that the core duo are so opposite each other, with Washington and Malek bringing two very different but equally compelling investigators to life.

Since The Little Things has become such a core part of Netflix's current Top 10, the movie is clearly resonating with audiences around the world. As the movie continues to perform well on the platform, it could gain even more international recognition in the days and weeks ahead. For now, it showcases how well Washington's crime thrillers are receiving, alongside the massive audiences they draw around the world.