Jennifer Lopez in "Atlas."
Lousy reviews didn’t stop viewers from streaming Jennifer Lopez’s new Netflix original movie Atlas in its debut over the weekend.
Directed by Brad Peyton (Rampage, San Andreas), Atlas is a futuristic tale about Atlas Shepherd (Lopez), a tech analyst who has led a guilt-ridden life after the death of her scientist mother when she was a child. Atlas’ mom invented an AI robot named Harlan (Simi Liu), who becomes self-aware and leads an AI revolt that leaves millions of people dead across the planet.
Escaping to another planet after the carnage, Harlan resurfaces 28 years later with a plan to annihilate Earth once and for all—so Atlas joins the mission to destroy the AI before it's too late.
According to the Netflix Global Top 10 Movies chart, Atlas had 28.2 million views from May 20-26, which equates to 56.3 million viewing hours in its first three days of release—enough for the film to top the streaming platform’s global list. Atlas was also No. 1 on the U.S. Top 10 Movies chart and finished in the Top 10 in 93 countries that have Netflix overall.
The strong debut of Atlas should take away the sting of the blistering reviews by Rotten Tomatoes critics, who to date have collectively given the film a 17% “rotten” rating based on 71 reviews. Netflix viewers remained neutral in their collective assessment of the film, bestowing a 51% Audience Score based on 500-plus verified user ratings.
Atlas also stars Sterling K. Brown, Mark Strong and Lana Parilla.
Atlas replaces the Netflix original rom-com Mother of the Bride as the top title on the Netflix global movies chart, a ranking the film held onto for two consecutive weeks. Starring Brooke Shields and Benjamin Bratt, the Netflix original movie dropped to No. 4 on this week’s global chart with 9.3 million views, which translates to 14 million viewing hours.
Animated Family Movie Moves Up The Netflix Global Chart
Finishing at No. 2 on the Netflix Global Top 10 Movies chart is the animated musical comedy Thelma the Unicorn (10.7 million views/17.4 million viewing hours) after debuting at No. 4 last week.
The 2009 animated comedy Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs came in at No. 3 (9.5 million views/15.1 viewing hours) in its global chart debut, while the 2007 Shia LaBeouf crime thriller Disturbia finished at No 5. behind Mother of the Bride.
Disturbia had 8.1 million views, which equates to 14.1 million viewing hours.
Unlike previous weeks in May when Netflix released such high-profile films as Unfrosted, Mother of the Bride and Atlas, there are no big movie productions on this week’s list of films debuting on the streaming service.
Next week, however, will see another big release with the action crime comedy Hit Man, starring Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone but You star Glen Powell opposite Andor star Adria Arjona.
Hit Man is directed by Powell’s Everybody Wants Some!! director Richard Linklater, which is co-written by Powell and Linklater.
