For each title, we calculate a Popularity Score, taking into account the total number of views and the length of time the title has been available to viewers in the relevant country. It is expressed as a number between 0 and 100, with the most successful movie in that country receiving a score of 100. Therefore, a movie with a score of 50 is half as popular as the top movie. You can read a full breakdown of how we calculate these scores here.
The sci-fi genre is a broad church. It includes big-budget action spectaculars, mid-budget family fare and inexpensive twisty thrillers.
For this analysis, we have largely used IMDb’s classification, which applies multiple genres per title and in which sci-fi accounts for 3.9% of titles. This includes films many would regard as primarily sci-fi (such as Star Wars) and titles with sci-fi tropes or plot elements (i.e. Despicable Me 3).
The most popular sci-fi movies on Netflix
Not only was Avengers: Infinity Wars the most popular sci-fi movie on the platform over the period studied, it was also the most popular film across all genres.
It was closely followed by stablemates Thor: Ragnarok, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Black Panther. In fact, movies set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) account for six out of the top ten sci-fi movies. Disney claims three more top spots (two Star Wars and a Pixar movie), with only Netflix’s Bird Box ruining their clean sweep.
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