The last edition of the Academy Awards may have only been a week and a half ago, but Netflix have surely delivered an early frontrunner for next year’s Best Animated Feature. The Mitchells vs. the Machines was produced by Sony Pictures Animation and scheduled for a theatrical release, but the Coronavirus pandemic saw the studio sell the rights to the streaming service in January for a hefty $110 million.
It’s paid off in spades, too, with the bombastic and massively entertaining family film dominating the most-watched list ever since it premiered on Friday, as it’s been going down a storm with both critics and subscribers. Mike Rianda’s directorial debut boasts an impressive Rotten Tomatoes score of 97%, and it’s going to take some beating to topple it as the best feature-length animation of the year.
As you may’ve noticed, The Mitchells vs. the Machines has been locked in a battle for supremacy over the top spot on the most-watched charts with another in-house original, but the response to Things Heard & Seen has been much more divisive. Despite being part of two wildly different genres, both movies have traded the number one position back and forth more than once over the last few days, with FlixPatrol reporting the following:
Two #Netflix original movies are fighting for the top spot since the last weekend.
While #TheMitchellsVsTheMachines is doing better in the πΊπΈ π¨π¦ π¦πΊ #ThingsHeardAndSeen are in lead in the π¬π§ π«π· π«π·
Full results for today https://t.co/dlZDmMwPNn pic.twitter.com/7bbJSFSSUf
— FlixPatrol (@flixpatrol) May 3, 2021
At the time of writing, Things Heard & Seen is currently at the summit of the viewership rankings, with The Mitchells vs. the Machines lurking just behind it in second (though the opposite is true on the US-only chart). Of course, that could all change by the end of the day, but whatever happens, it’s good news for Netflix that two original projects have been duking it out over the right to be called the single most popular film on the world’s biggest streaming service.