With Netflix’s DVDs by mail service now heading off into the sunset, movie trivia nerds now have decades of data to pull from regarding what kind of motion pictures flourished on this service and why. Netflix gave people the ability to pull features from countless countries right into their homes simply by requesting them online, but what did people actually rent from this service? The list of the 50 most rented films on Netflix suggests that subscribers largely used Netflix to catch up on mainstream cinema they might have missed in the theater. Projects like Hidden Figures, The King’s Speech, and The Fighter dominate the list.
However, it’s not just individual films and trends stemming from these motion pictures that trivia-hungry nerds can examine when looking at Netflix’s long history of DVD rentals. One can also get a sense of what movie stars and actors people gravitated to the most. Just as a certain face on a movie poster at the local multiplex will garner the attention of prospective moviegoers, so too will certain famous names get people to rent DVDs on Netflix. Over the last few decades, two names have apparently emerged as the ones to star in the DVDs rented the most from the streamer: Morgan Freeman and Cate Blanchett.
How Popular Were Morgan Freeman and Cate Blanchett on Netflix?
Per a flyer sent out to long-standing Netflix DVD subscribers, Morgan Freeman was the most popular actor in the history of Netflix’s DVD service with a staggering 63,470,243 DVDs shipped of his movies. As for Cate Blanchett, she was in 44,219,319 DVDs shipped. Freeman’s most popular movie on Netflix’s DVD service was The Bucket List while Blanchett’s was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Interestingly, both of these are titles that went into wide release in 2008 (The Bucket List dropped into limited release at the end of 2007). This overlapping timeframe suggests how Freeman and Blanchett were able to become more popular than any other actors in the history of Netflix’s physical media exploits.
Netflix’s DVD service peaked with 20 million subscribers in 2010, just a few years after DVD sales peaked in 2005. It’s not that people weren’t buying physical copies of movies starting in 2011, but this mode of purchasing and watching films became significantly less popular in the new decade as streaming took over and studios opted to look for new ways to generate revenue. Considering the time from the 1980s up to 2010 as a golden era for physical media, it becomes clear why Blanchett and Freeman were able to become titans among Netflix’s DVD rentals. Freeman and Blanchett headlined many lucrative projects between 2003 (when Netflix first hit 1 million subscribers) and 2010 (when its DVD service peaked).
In this seven-year period, Blanchett and Freeman were masters at showing up in both blockbuster hits and adult-skewing award season movies, two types of titles that were very popular in Netflix’s DVD rental space. Blanchett, for instance, appeared in all three Lord of the Rings installments but also showed up in grounded projects like Babel, The Aviator, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. For his part, Morgan Freeman was in the first two installments of Christopher Nolan‘s Dark Knight trilogy in the 2000s, but he also showed up in Oscar-friendly movies like Million Dollar Baby, Gone Baby Gone, and Invictus. A willingness to engage in that level of variety in their acting choices in the era in which Netflix’s DVD service thrived guaranteed that Freeman and Blanchett would be superstars in this domain.
Why Would Morgan Freeman and Cate Blanchett Be Popular on Netflix?
It doesn’t hurt, too, that there’s an artsy and classy image surrounding both Freeman and Blanchett. There’s a seductiveness to both of these figures in the way their famously gravitas-soaked performances just scream “importance” without lapsing into being pompous. Watching one of their movies, even if it’s The Bucket List, could make people automatically feel like they were a little closer to the prestige and glitz that only Hollywood could provide once upon a time. When you cultivate that kind of image, it’s bound to help push some DVDs at Netflix warehouses worldwide.
Interestingly, though, Freeman and Blanchett’s standing in the world of DVD rentals was also likely helped by neither actor, at least in the 2000s, having a massive fanatical fanbase that would buy every one of their movies the day it came out. Twilight fans would always buy Twilight films when they hit home video, so rentals would be less likely. Even Adam Sandler fans might just plunk down 20 bucks for Click knowing they’ll rewatch it a lot. However, Freeman and Blanchett’s films tended to be adult-skewing fare like The Aviator or Gone Baby Gone that don’t have hordes of people waiting to buy them the first day they come out. People may want to just rent these more challenging titles first and see if they like them. Inhabiting that kind of cinema allowed Blanchett and Freeman to cement their throne above all others in the realm of Netflix DVD rentals.
It didn’t hurt that the duo also proved consistently notable as actors even after the golden age of Netflix DVDs came and went. Looking at the top 100 Netflix DVD rentals ever, a good chunk of the titles are projects released in 2010 and beyond. Freeman showed up in the popular Netflix rental Red, though Blanchett is interestingly absent from any of the 2010s titles on this list or the top 100 titles, period. Still, it’s impossible to imagine that early 2010s Blanchett hits like Blue Jasmine weren’t major players for Netflix’s DVD service. Thanks to their enduring presence in cinema, Blanchett and Freeman could accumulate enough rentals to make Netflix history.
With Netflix’s DVD rental service about to become just another bygone relic of the past, it’s remarkable to look back and realize two of the most popular movies on the service were Blanchett and Freeman star vehicles that weren’t franchise fare. Not only is this a testament to the enduring appeal of these actors, but it suggests audiences do want something new if you provide them with access to it. At its best, the world of Netflix DVD rentals allowed people to order new motion pictures (and some iconic performances from the likes of Blanchett and Freeman) from the comfort of their couch. Here’s to hoping that hunger for something new endures within the general public well into the future.
The Big Picture
- The list of the 50 most rented films on Netflix’s DVD service suggests that subscribers primarily used the service to catch up on mainstream cinema they missed in theaters, with movies like Hidden Figures, The King’s Speech, and The Fighter dominating the list.
- Morgan Freeman and Cate Blanchett were the most popular actors on Netflix’s DVD service, with Freeman’s movies being shipped a staggering 63,470,243 times and Blanchett’s movies being shipped 44,219,319 times. Both actors appeared in a mix of blockbuster hits and award season movies during the golden era of DVD rentals.
- The artsy and classy image surrounding Freeman and Blanchett, along with the variety in their acting choices, contributed to their popularity on Netflix’s DVD service. Additionally, their films tended to be adult-skewing fare, making them more likely to be rented by viewers who wanted to see if they liked the more challenging titles before purchasing them.
#Netflixs #MostRented #DVDs #Star #Hollywood #AListers