2026 has been an unusually clear year for Netflix films: one romantic comedy broke the service's own records, one long-awaited finale drew the best reviews, and the two are almost nothing alike.
A note on the ranking. There is no single measure of "best", so this list uses two — how many people actually watched, and how critics scored it — and says which is which rather than blending them into a number that means nothing.
The biggest hit: Voicemails for Isabelle
Netflix's romantic comedy with Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson became the year's defining hit almost immediately.
It drew 84.3 million views in six weeks — about 165.7 million hours, or roughly 9.9 billion minutes — and stayed inside the weekly top five for seven consecutive weeks, a record for a Netflix rom-com.
It beat both Office Romance and People We Meet on Vacation to become the year's biggest film in the genre, in a year where Netflix released several.
The best reviewed: Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man
Cillian Murphy returned as Tommy Shelby for the story's final chapter, directed by Tom Harper and written by series creator Steven Knight.
It reached cinemas on 6 March 2026 and Netflix on 20 March, and it is the best-reviewed Netflix film of the year so far.
Capping off Tommy Shelby's story with grit and swagger, The Immortal Man is a satisfying conclusion to Peaky Blinders that also stands tall on its own self-contained terms.
Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus
The scores disagree, though. It holds 92% on Rotten Tomatoes but only 59 on Metacritic — a wide gap that usually means critics liked it without loving it.
The dissent is consistent: several reviewers felt the film raises real questions about legacy and memory, then runs out of room to answer them.
Two different definitions of a good year
Watched most
- Voicemails for Isabelle — 84.3M views
- The Last House — 27.5M opening
- Office Romance
- People We Meet on Vacation
Reviewed best
- Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man — 92%
- The Rip — crime thriller
- People We Meet on Vacation
People We Meet on Vacation is the only title that appears on both lists — a decade-spanning story about two friends that landed with audiences and reviewers alike.
Also worth your time
- The Last House. A survival thriller with Greta Lee and Wagner Moura. It opened to 27.5 million views and then grew nearly 22% in week two to 33.5 million — unusual, and a sign of word of mouth rather than marketing.
- The Rip. A crime thriller built on deception and double-crosses, and among the better-regarded Netflix originals of the year.
- Apex, Thrash, Swapped and KPop Demon Hunters. All landed in Netflix's most-watched films of the first half of the year.
The short version
If you want the film everyone is talking about, it is Voicemails for Isabelle. If you want the one most likely to hold up, it is Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man. They are not the same film, and 2026 has been unusually honest about that.
About this list. Compiled September 2026 from Netflix's published viewing figures and aggregated critic scores. View counts are Netflix's own first-window numbers and are not directly comparable to box office. Scores change as more reviews land.