Everett Collection
When Netflix released its latest major data set on Thursday — the second called What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report — animated features continued to make a big impact for the streamer. Of the top 100 titles with the most views during the period under review, from July to December 2023, 33 were cartoons, bringing in a total of 1,087,600,000 views.
That said, titles licensed from other studios have continued to largely overshadow Netflix originals in terms of impact. Of the 33 animated titles in the Top 100, five were produced by Netflix. starring Adam Sandler Leo peaked at #3 overall, coming in at 96 million views. Others that made the cut were included The Monkey King (#30, 42,900,000 views), Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (#41, 35,200,000 views), the Oscar nominee Nimona (#47, 31,200,000 views), The Sea Monster (#84, 20,800,000 views) and Back to the Outback (#93, 19,600,000 views).
By far the biggest supplier of Netflix’s top animated films was Universal, which through an exclusive licensing deal brought 22 titles to the streamer during those months — most of them from DreamWorks and Illumination. Other companies represented on the list were Sony (with 3), Paramount/Nickelodeon (1) and France’s SND (1). The relative impact of licensed titles compared to originals, in this case, isn’t all that different from what’s seen on the TV side at Netflix, given the streamer’s unique gift for creating chart-topping phenomena from old series like Suits. Animated titles remain a terrific investment for the streamer, overall — given their tendency to be viewed for kids on repeat, for starters.
Other animated titles ranking high in Netflix’s latest feature report, ranked by number of views, include The Boss Baby (61,700,000), Paw Patrol: The Movie (59,000,000), Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir, The Movie (49,700,000), The Grinch by Dr. Seuss (45,300,000), The movie Super Mario Bros (44,900,000), Sing (40,800,000), Hotel Transylvania (40,100,000), Troll (38,300,000), Sing 2 (37,500,000), Shrek (35,100,000), The Croods: A New Age (34,700,000), Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (33,800,000), Woody the Nutcracker (29,100,000), Shrek 2 (27,000,000), Minions: The Rise of Gru (26,200,000), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (24,700,000), Despicable Me 2 (23,900,000), The secret life of pets (23,900,000), the special Minions & More Volume 2 (23,800,000), The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday (23,500,000), Minions (22,400,000), Madagascar (20,800,000), The Croods (19,300,000), Bee movie (19,100,000), Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (19,000,000) and Hotel Transylvania (18,300,000).
More recent debut titles such as Thelma the Unicornand ready to release the anime Oni my girl tomorrow, Netflix will introduce next month animated films, including DreamWorks Home, The Lego Movie, The Lego Batman Movie and its original Ultraman: Rises.
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