Netflix’s latest release, The Last House, topped the streaming giant’s weekly charts with 27.5 million views. Despite only having 3 days to achieve the target, the new thriller easily outpaced 72 hours, starring Kevin Hart, which came in 2nd place with 11.1 million viewers. However, despite topping the chart, the movie has not performed well critically.
The Last House
The movie was first announced in May 2024 and had signed Matthew Robinson, known for writing and directing The Invention of Lying with Ricky Gervais. Greta Lee, who featured in the Netflix series Russian Doll, and Kingsley Ben-Adir were also cast in the main leads.
Ben-Adir would eventually be replaced in January 2025 when Netflix took over the project. The streamer announced Wagner Moura as his replacement, with the Brazilian having played Pablo Escabar in the Netflix series, Narcos.
Work on the film started in April 2025 with an official release on August 7. Netflix has given some movies limited theatrical runs. Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, and the latter’s most recent film Frankenstein all saw some level of theatrical release. But, we live in an online era. More people stream movie releases online rather than go to theatres. A lot of modern games are played online, rather than in person, and slots like Double Bubble are released online rather than in person because they can incorporate unique features and enhanced gameplay and yet reach far greater audiences than they would in land-based locations.
It’s therefore unsurprising that Netflix did not bother to push for a theatrical release of the film. Given it’s lack of general positive critical appraisal, it may have struggled to sell tickets based on word-of-mouth alone.
Netflix Originals
Source: Unsplash
Netflix has been releasing Original movies since 2015, when it launched Beasts Of No Nation. While that movie, which starred Idris Elba, received a 91% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, its launches haven’t always been as well received. The Last House has only managed a 23% critic score and a 28% viewer score. Reviews praise the high-caliber cast but state that it isn’t enough to elevate the movie to an altogether thrilling viewing experience. Some positive reviews do describe it as a reasonable way to pass 2 hours, but that’s about as good as it gets.
The Last House is a psychological thriller in which a family of four are sealed inside their house. It includes survival elements that are reminiscent of survival video games, and it shows the family’s steps to survive over the course of five years. It does carry an environmental message about how humans have ruined the earth, but it can be quite slow going.
The Billboard Guy
To mark the launch of the movie, Netflix employed actor Nathan Shoop to spend days trapped inside a living room in a billboard on Sunset Boulevard. The Billboard Guy spent his time communicating with the outside world via a whiteboard and his antics attracted fans from across the city, many of whom came to check up on him every day.
The man in THE LAST HOUSE billboard is out! And he’s ready to answer your questions. pic.twitter.com/L1ZzRmyzXM
— Netflix (@netflix) August 14, 2026
Next up for Netflix is The Whisper Man. Launching on August 28, the movie has an all-star cast led by Robert de Niro and including Michelle Monaghan, Adam Scott, and Michael Keaton. The thriller is another collaboration between Netflix and The Russo Brothers – previous titles have included Extraction and Extraction 2, and the Electric State.