Credit: Netflix

Just as language and culture evolve with demographic shifts, viewing trends on Netflix fluctuate in response to regional tastes and contemporary momentum. This is largely why, no matter how close the international and US most popular movies charts are, they’re always distinctly different in one way or another.

That said, the throne of the most popular movies chart in the US belongs to the same MVP that’s reigning on the global chart in the week of August 17th to August 23rd, the Sunny Sandler comedy Don’t Say Good Luck. The bittersweet dramedy amassed a whopping 12.8million views this week and is currently the number-one movie in 12 countries.

Ranked second on the most popular movies chart, however, is the Spanish action thriller based on an interesting true story, Facing El Chapo, which follows two Mexican police officers who unwittingly confront notorious drug lord El Chapo during a routine traffic stop, oblivious to the ongoing manhunt for him.

Up next on the most popular movies chart, Netflix has a jaw-dropping Lifetime true-crime movie, The Dating App Killer: The Monica White Story, which also debuted this week on the international chart with 3.4million views. Unsurprisingly, succeeding the same is yet another 2026 Lifetime thriller, To Catch a Cheater, albeit not based on a true story.

Since the Lifetime movies were recently added to Netflix, their respective chart appearances are not exactly shockers. But what’s indeed a surprise is how The Last House dropped to number five in the US, despite holding onto the second position on the most popular movies chart globally after amassing 12million views alone this week.

While surprises are part and parcel of Netflix’s weekly trends, what’s next on the list is not a rabbit out of the streamer’s hat. Positioned sixth on the most popular movies chart in the US is Rory Kennedy’s newest investigative documentary, Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing, which serves as the highly anticipated sequel to his 2022 film Downfall: The Case Against Boeing.

Next in line is the 2016 monster film The Great Wall, strutting with heads held high at seventh on the most popular movies chart in the US. Meanwhile, succeeding the blast from the past is the hybrid Netflix Original docufilm recounting the shocking case of a fake pregnancy, A Child of My Own.

The last two stops on this week’s most popular movies chart in the US are the Oscar-winning animated superhero film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the Mark Wahlberg adventure movie, Arthur the King. And with those, we officially come to a close this time around!

The 10 most popular movies on Netflix US this week:

• Don’t Say Good Luck
• Facing El Chapo
• The Dating App Killer: The Monica White Story
• To Catch a Cheater
• The Last House
• Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing
• The Great Wall
• A Child of My Own
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
• Arthur the King