Critically Panned Movies 'Mother Of The Bride,' 'Unfrosted' Top Netflix Charts

 

Miranda Cosgrove as Emma and Brooke Shields as Lana in "Mother of the Bride." 

TOPLINE

 

A new romantic comedy sits at the top of the Netflix movie chart despite dismal reviews from critics who've called "Mother of the Bride" "mindless," "unremarkable" and "threadbare" in the seven days since it was released, making the film the second Netflix original to be panned by critics—yet still top the streamer's most-watched list—in as many weeks.

KEY FACTS

“Mother of the Bride,” a 90-minute film starring Brooke Shields and Miranda Cosgrove, released May 9 and debuted at the top of the Netflix chart in the week of May 6 to 12 with 26.7 million views worldwide in its first four days.

Despite its relative streaming success, critics have blasted the movie and it has earned a score of just 14% on Rotten Tomatoes—the worst performance of any Netflix original so far this year.

The No. 2 spot on the most-watched chart last week was held by “Unfrosted,” the film written and directed by Jerry Seinfeld about the origin story of the Pop-Tart breakfast pastry, which was watched 8.8 million times in its second week.

“Unfrosted” was similarly lambasted by reviewers—it has a critics score of 42%—but also premiered at the top of the chart last week with 7.1 million views, the worst debut of any movie on Netflix so far this year.

The third most-watched film of the week was "Shrek," which was re-added to Netflix at the start of the month, with 8.5 million views, followed by "Barbarian" (4.6 million) and "Secrets of the Neanderthals" (4.3 million).

A decade-old Robert Downey Jr. film called "The Judge" spent its second week on the chart at No. 6 with 3.7 million views, followed by the 2013 Nicholas Cage movie "The Frozen Ground" (3.4 million) and "Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp," in its fifth week at the top with 3.2 million views.

"The Great Wall," a 2016 Matt Damon film that was met with controversy for casting predominately white actors for a movie based in ancient China, was the ninth most-popular film (3.2 million views) followed by "Shrek Forever After" at No. 10 (the animated movie has surged in popularity as the original series film has done the same and on the announcement of a fifth movie in the "Shrek" franchise).

BIG NUMBER

21. That's how many English Netflix original movies have been released so far this year. Of the 19 with scores on Rotten Tomatoes, 10 have “rotten” ratings with under 60% of critics’ approval. The average score for Netflix original movies in 2024 is 55.3%, with the last four releases ("Mother of the Bride," "Unfrosted," "Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver" and "Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp") all ranked at 42% or lower.

SURPRISING FACT

Its Netflix resurgence is just the latest success story for the "Shrek" franchise, which has been beloved by critics and audiences for almost 25 years. The first film, released in 2021, won the first ever Academy Award for best animated feature and the original series of four movies so far has grossed $2.98 billion at the worldwide box office. It also spawned the creation of two "Puss in Boots" spinoff films (which together grossed $1.03 billion worldwide), a permanent tourist attraction in London and a Broadway production and touring stage musical. “Shrek” was chosen for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2020, the first animated film of the 21st century to be chosen.