With a content catalog numbering in the hundreds and constantly refreshing, earning attention on Netflix isn’t always easy, but one of the streamer’s latest titles has managed to break the mold. Debuting on Wednesday, Oct. 19, The School for Good and Evil, an adaptation of Soman Chainani’s novel of the same name, broke into the Top 10 just hours after its debut, and it’s held its top-ranking position for days now.
Directed by Paul Feig with a screenplay he co-wrote with David Magee, the fantasy film centers around Sophie and Agatha. Whisked away to an enchanted school where aspiring heroes and villains are trained to protect the balance between good and evil, the best friends find themselves on opposing sides of an epic battle. The film stars an ensemble cast led by Sophia Anne Caruso as Sophie and Sofia Wylie as Agatha, with Laurence Fishburne, Michelle Yeoh, and Jamie Flatters also starring.
Videos by PopCulture.com
The film jumped to the top spot on the streaming chart just a day after its debut, and has held its No. 1 ranking ever since. It currently beats out The Stranger, The Curse of Bridge Hollow, Luckiest Girl Alive, and Sing 2, which round out the Top 5 films currently streaming in the U.S. The School for Good and Evil is also enjoying plenty of international success. FlixPatrol data for Oct. 24 shows the movie taking the No. 1 spot among films on the global chart, coming ahead of The Stranger, Luckiest Girl Alive, The Curse of Bridge Hollow, and 20th Century Girl. It ranks No. 1 in a number of countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
For all of its success on the platform, though, The School for Good and Evil isn’t being met with much critical praise. In fact, the movie has only managed a meager 36% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. With a critics consensus reading, “the cast is game and the visuals are dazzling, but a deeply derivative narrative means The School for Good and Evil flunks on the storytelling front,” The School for Good and Evil is certified rotten. However, it is certified fresh among the audience, holding an audience score of 70%.
Netflix has not released any viewership data for The School for Good and Evil just yet. For comparison, fellow Top 5-ranking films Luckiest Girl Alive and The Curse of Bridge Hollow respectively grabbed 57.01 million streaming hours and 25.12 million streaming hours for the week of Oct. 10 through Oct. 16, so it seems likely The School for Good and Evil has performed similarly. The movie is available to stream on Netflix.
