Despite having received the worst reviews of his filmmaking career, Ben Affleck‘s new political thriller has emerged as a bona fide hit for Netflix. The streamer is currently undergoing a major change-up behind-the-scenes, but Affleck’s film marks a culmination of a new strategy to pivot away from mega-budget tentpoles and focus on mid-budget genre titles.
Over the course of 2026, Netflix has released a string of smaller-scale hits, several of which have hit the coveted 100 million views mark. After having topped the streamer’s viewership charts for four weeks in a row, Affleck’s new movie is on its way to hitting the milestone as well, despite some less-than-flattering reviews.
The movie in question follows a Los Angeles mayoral candidate who finds himself in a moral dilemma when his son is kidnapped. The film shares the same premise as Akira Kurosawa‘s classic drama High and Low, which inspired a Hollywood remake only a few months ago. This time last year, director Spike Lee reunited with Denzel Washington on the Apple TV film Highest 2 Lowest, which received more positive reviews than Affleck’s version.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Netflix Character Would Be Your Best Friend? Dustin · Emily · Wednesday · Gi-hun
Some friends drag you out of the house. Some sit with you on the worst night of your life. Netflix has written both, plus the one who tells you the truth you have been avoiding all week. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually do friendship, and find out which of them was always going to end up in your corner.
🧢Dustin(Stranger Things)
🗼Emily(Emily in Paris)
🕷️Wednesday(Wednesday)
🟢Gi-hun(Squid Game)
01
How do you usually end up making a new friend? The origin story says a lot about the friendship that follows it.
02
What is a perfect Saturday with your best friend? Friendship is mostly built out of very ordinary hours.
03
You call them at two in the morning. What happens? This is the real test of a friendship, and everybody knows it.
04
What do you want from them when you are clearly wrong? The best friendships are the ones that survive being corrected.
05
What do your friends actually value about you? The friend you attract says something about the friend you are.
06
You have a falling out. How does it go? How a friendship repairs itself matters more than how it breaks.
07
What do you actually need a best friend for? Everybody is missing something. The right friend fills that gap.
08
Ten years from now, what keeps the two of you close? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who you get.
The Group Chat Has Spoken Your Best Friend Is…
Four Netflix characters, four completely different ways of showing up
for somebody. This is the one who fits how you actually do friendship, and what having them in your
life would be like.
Stranger Things · Netflix · Since 2016
Dustin Henderson
You do not do friendship at half volume, and neither does he.
What you want is somebody who says yes to the plan before you have finished describing the
plan.
Dustin is the friend the entire show runs on: loyal past the point of sense,
enthusiastic about everything, and incapable of leaving anybody behind.
You have the same instinct. Your friendships are loud, specific and slightly ridiculous,
and they last for decades because of it.
He is also the one person who would take your strangest interest completely seriously,
which is far rarer than it sounds.
You would have a group chat. It would never once be quiet.
Emily in Paris · Netflix · Since 2020
Emily Cooper
You are the friend who makes things happen, and so is she.
Together you would be mildly exhausting to everyone around you and completely delighted with
yourselves.
Emily treats an ordinary Tuesday as something that could be turned into an occasion,
which is either the best or the worst quality in a friend depending on your energy
levels.
You share her refusal to sit still. Neither of you has ever accepted a night in when
something was happening somewhere else.
She is far more loyal than people give her credit for. She defends her friends loudly,
publicly, and occasionally before checking the facts.
She would post the photo without asking. You would forgive her, because it is a very
good photo.
Wednesday · Netflix · Since 2022
Wednesday Addams
You have no patience for pleasant lies, and she has no ability to
tell them. What looks like coldness from the outside is the most reliable friendship on this
list.
Wednesday never says a kind thing she does not mean, which makes the rare ones count for
an enormous amount.
You would rather be told the truth than be made comfortable. She is constitutionally
incapable of offering you anything else.
Underneath all of it she is ferociously protective. She simply refuses to make a
performance out of caring.
Do not expect a birthday message. Do expect her to ruin anyone who wrongs you.
Squid Game · Netflix · 2021–2025
Seong Gi-hun
You look after whoever is having the worst day. So does he. It is
the least strategic way to move through the world and the best possible quality in a friend.
Gi-hun is not the strongest player in Squid Game, or the cleverest. He is the one who
keeps choosing to protect somebody else, over and over, at genuine cost to himself.
You have the same instinct. You notice who is struggling and you stay with them, long
after anybody would blame you for leaving.
He is a flawed friend, and that is part of why it lands. He lets people down, then comes
back and tries again, which is more than most manage.
He would give you his last chance and never once mention that he had done it.
Here’s Where Ben Affleck’s Thriller Stands
We’re talking, of course, about Animals. The movie appears to have settled at a 29% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Despite all the makings of an enticing story, including a compelling Kerry Washington, Animals’ weak writing prevents it from reaching its full potential.” By comparison, Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest holds a “Certified Fresh” 83% score on the aggregator. Despite the mediocre reviews, Animals added 4.7 million views in the week of October 26 to November 1.
In its previous three weeks of release, the movie generated 23.8 million views, 30.8 million views, and 10.7 million views. This takes the film’s total viewership to 70 million in four weeks. This year, Netflix has released a string of genre movies that have passed 100 million views; this list includes War Machine, Thrash, and Apex, with The Last House having generated more than 90 million views and The Whisper Man sitting at more than 80 million views. Netflix calculates total viewership based on a title’s performance in the first three months of its release, meaning that Animals has two more months to go before the counting stops.
Animals is streaming now on Netflix. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
