Netflix's Top 10 Is a Sinking Ship Disguised as a Lifeboat

On Tuesday morning, I opened Netflix and scrolled to the Top 10 Movies list. The #1 spot? 'The Man from Toronto,' a 2022 action-comedy that critics panned and you forgot existed. The #2 spot? 'The Adam Project,' a 2022 Ryan Reynolds time-travel flick.

This isn't a glitch. It's a strategy.

Netflix's Top 10 is not a popularity contest. It's a performance. It's Netflix telling you what to watch so they don't have to pay for new stuff.

The Numbers Don't Lie

According to Bloomberg reporting this week, Netflix spent $17 billion on content in 2025. That's more than Disney+ and HBO Max combined. But this week's Top 10 includes five movies released before 2023. Bloomberg noted in a May analysis that catalog content now accounts for over 60% of total viewing hours on the platform.

Here is the part that hurts: Netflix is winning by being boring.

The Algorithm Did Not Break

Conventional wisdom says the algorithm is failing. That the recommendations are stale. That people are just watching old comfort movies because they can't find anything new.

That's wrong. The algorithm is working perfectly. It learned that you will watch 'Red Notice' three times if it shows up in the Top 10. So it shows you 'Red Notice' three times.

This week, the #3 movie is 'The Gray Man,' a 2022 action film that cost $200 million. The #4 movie is 'Spenser Confidential,' a 2020 Mark Wahlberg vehicle. The algorithm is not confused. It is optimized for low-risk, high-volume viewing.

The Hidden Cost of the Top 10

The real story is what is NOT on the list. 'The Queen's Gambit' is not there. 'Squid Game' is not there. 'All Quiet on the Western Front' is not there. The high-brow, buzzy, water-cooler shows are gone.

Instead, the list is dominated by what Netflix calls 'background TV'—movies you can half-watch while scrolling your phone. The Wall Street Journal reported in late May that Netflix's internal data shows 47% of viewers watch Top 10 movies while doing something else.

This changes how Netflix buys content. If background TV is the goal, you don't need great scripts. You need loud explosions and familiar faces.

The Dwayne Johnson Tax

Look at the top 5 this week. Three of them star Dwayne Johnson. The other two star Ryan Reynolds or Kevin Hart. Netflix has essentially created a new genre: the high-budget, no-risk, star-powered movie that exists only to hold your attention for 110 minutes.

A CNN analysis from earlier this month calculated that Netflix has spent over $1.2 billion on Dwayne Johnson projects since 2021. That is more than the GDP of several small countries. And it works. 'Red Notice' remains Netflix's most-watched movie ever, with 364 million hours streamed.

But Here Is the Twist

The Top 10 is actually a trap for Netflix. Here is why.

When you put old movies at the top, you train viewers to wait for new movies to become old. Why watch the new Kevin Hart movie on release day? Wait three months and it will be in the Top 10 anyway. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy: new movies get buried, so nobody watches them, so Netflix buries more new movies.

According to Reuters reporting this week, Netflix has canceled 23 original movies in post-production since January. That is a record. They are stopping movies before they even get a chance.

The Real Winners

The Top 10 list also reveals who benefits from this system: the legacy studios. Warner Bros. and Sony are licensing their old catalogs to Netflix for enormous fees. This week's list includes 'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle' (Sony, 2017) and 'The Lost City' (Paramount, 2022).

Netflix is paying these studios millions per month for movies that already existed. It's cheaper than making new ones. It's safer. And it's slowly turning Netflix into a second-run theater.

What This Means for You

If you are a viewer, the Top 10 is increasingly useless. You have already seen these movies. You know that 'The Adam Project' is fine. You know that 'The Gray Man' is a mess. Yet the algorithm insists.

Here is what actually matters: the movies that are NOT in the Top 10. 'They Cloned Tyrone' is a brilliant, original sci-fi film from 2023 that sits at #47. 'The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar' is a Wes Anderson masterpiece at #62. These are the movies you should watch. But Netflix will not show them to you.

The Future Is Fractured

I think the Top 10 is dying. Not the list itself—that will stay. But its power is fading. People are learning to ignore it. Nielsen data from last month shows that 34% of Netflix viewers now browse outside the Top 10 on purpose. That is up from 12% in 2022.

Netflix knows this. They are testing a 'random' button in Australia. They are experimenting with genre-based landing pages. They are terrified that the Top 10 has become a liability.

Watch for this: by the end of 2026, Netflix will significantly redesign its home screen. The Top 10 will move from the top spot to a secondary row. Netflix will pretend it is about 'personalization.' It is actually about hiding the fact that their best-selling movies are from five years ago.

The Bottom Line

The Netflix Top 10 this week is not a list of what is popular. It is a list of what Netflix wants to be popular—cheep, safe, familiar. The algorithm is not your friend. It is Netflix's accountant.

Your next move: scroll past the Top 10. Go to the bottom. Find the weird movie with the strange poster. That is the one that will remind you why you subscribed in the first place.

That, or just watch 'The Man from Toronto' again. I won't judge.