This is a thought in progress page. As streaming has become bigger and bigger, we here at UltimateMovieRankings.com have been trying to figure out how to add streaming movies to our database. Our first thought was just ignore it.
After doing that for a few years, last year we decided to start adding the movies and give each movie credit for the lowest box office gross possible and still have it show up in the database. That number was about $51,000 in gross. That got the movies in the database, but really hurt the scores of the movies….even if it was a monster hit for Netflix. With 2020 causing more and more movies to go the streaming route…we realize we better come up with a better way to include those movies in our rankings. With that goal in mind, we have been collecting as much information as possible on SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand) as we could find. Forbes, Netflix and Flix Patrol provided much of the information. Using that information we have created a possible way to give a successful streaming movie more credit in our ranking system.
There are two tables of information on this page. Table 1 shows all the movies we have collected information on. The movies are ranked by the most popular streaming movies in 2020. This is far from all the movies….just the ones we have been able to research. Table 2 shows a possible way to include these numbers into our database. That table shows about 30 movies with an old UMR Score and a new UMR Score using our new research.
An example. Let’s look at Mulan from Disney Plus. Based on the research we have collected, it looks like Mulan was the most viewed movie on SVOD platforms in 2020. This was based on downloads, minutes watched and time in the Top 10. So we made Mulan the ceiling and compared all the other movies to Mulan. That is how the first table was set up. The second table uses the UMR formula in calculating movie scores. That formula uses 30% for box office. So we gave Mulan an additional 30 points since it was the highest rated. The lower the ranking…the less points a movie got in the formula.
Rank Movie Title Service Movie Was On SVOD Points Earned (max is 100)
Mulan Disney Plus 99.99
Enola Holmes Netflix 82.16
The Christmas Chronicles 2 Netflix 79.58
Holidate Netflix 74.24
The Old Guard Netflix 69.59
The Social Dilemma Netflix 67.91
Project Power Netflix 65.01
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run Netflix 64.27
The Kissing Booth 2 Netflix 63.80
Extraction Netflix 60.18
Hubie Halloween Netflix 52.82
Over The Moon Netflix 43.70
A California Christmas Netflix 42.65
The Devil All The Time Netflix 41.20
Work It Netflix 40.78
Love, Guaranteed Netflix 38.41
Feel The Beat Netflix 37.78
The Christmas Chronicles Netflix 36.38
The Princess Switch: Switched Again Netflix 35.72
Hamilton:The Movie Disney Plus 35.42
Alive Netflix 34.64
Operation Christmas Drop Netflix 33.93
The Sleepover Netflix 32.40
The Wrong Missy Netflix 31.90
Rebecca Netflix 31.67
Bronx Netflix 31.59
The Midnight Sky Netflix 30.26
The Babysitter Killer Queen Netflix 28.50
Mosul Netflix 27.84
The Paramedic Netflix 27.76
Artemis Fowl Disney Plus 27.10
The Kissing Booth Netflix 27.07
Desperados Netflix 26.24
The Last Days Of American Crime Netflix 25.97
The Beast Netflix 25.82
The Platform Netflix 25.63
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Firesaga Netflix 24.51
The Willoughbys Netflix 24.26
Once Upon A Snowman Disney Plus 23.20
Dangerous Lies Netflix 23.08
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey Netflix 22.89
Lost Bullet Netflix 22.66
6 Underground Netflix 21.73
Godmothered Disney Plus 21.61
David Attenborough: A Life In Our Planet Netflix 20.60
The Prom Netflix 20.56
We Can Be Heroes Netflix 19.03
The Trial of the Chicago 7 Netflix 18.78
Fatal Affair Netflix 17.51
Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb Netflix 17.32
Love, Wedding, Repeat Netflix 16.40
A Babysitter's Guide To Monster Hunting Netflix 16.07
The Half Of It Netflix 16.04
Money Heist: The Phenomenon Netflix 14.93
The Call Netflix 14.86
Da 5 Bloods Netflix 14.39
Malibu Rescue: The Next Wave Netflix 13.88
BLACKPINK: Light Up The Sky Netflix 13.68
If Anything Happens I Love You Netflix 13.24
Freaks - Your One Of Us Netflix 12.9
Murder Mystery Netflix 12.70
Dad Wanted Netflix 12.40
Rose Island Netflix 11.97
Soul Disney Plus 11.93
The Life Ahead Netflix 11.56
Let Them All Talk HBO 11.50
Coffee 7 Kareem Netflix 11.44
Seriously Single Netflix 11.25
Spenser Confidential Netflix 10.63
The Witches HBO 9.39
Secret Society of Second Born Royals Disney Plus 9.24
Bad Education HBO 9.19
An American Pickle HBO 8.76
Clouds Disney Plus 8.61
Hillbilly Elegy Netflix 8.01
Intuition Netflix 7.96
Unpregnant HBO 6.19
The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special Disney Plus 6.07
The Lovebirds Netflix 5.63
Safety Disney Plus 5.57
Black Is King Disney Plus 5.02
Klaus Netflix 1.97
Palm Springs Hulu 1.70
Superintelligence HBO 1.53
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Netflix 0.87
Books Of Blood Hulu 0.40
Mank Netflix 0.34
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend Netflix 0.13
This is only movies that did not play in theaters.
Rank Movie Title Service Provider SVOD Points Old UMR Score New UMR Score
Mulan Disney Plus 30.00 32.90 62.90
Enola Holmes Netflix 24.64 53.60 78.24
The Christmas Chronicles 2 Netflix 23.87 47.70 71.57
The Old Guard Netflix 20.87 53.60 74.47
Project Power Netflix 19.50 31.10 50.60
Extraction Netflix 18.05 42.7 60.75
Hubie Halloween Netflix 15.84 20.02 35.86
The Devil All The Time Netflix 12.36 51.90 64.26
The Wrong Missy Netflix 9.57 18.20 27.77
The Midnight Sky Netflix 9.07 13.10 22.17
Artemis Fowl Disney Plus 8.13 0.40 8.53
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Firesaga Netflix 7.35 46.00 53.35
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey Netflix 6.86 59.10 65.96
The Prom Netflix 6.16 37.40 43.56
We Can Be Heroes Netflix 5.71 21.57 27.28
The Trial of the Chicago 7 Netflix 5.63 68.02 73.65
Da 5 Bloods Netflix 4.31 49.90 54.21
Soul Disney Plus 3.57 71.79 75.36
The Life Ahead Netflix 3.46 61.40 64.86
Let Them All Talk HBO 3.45 41.53 44.98
Coffee 7 Kareem Netflix 3.43 9.00 12.43
Spenser Confidential Netflix 3.18 20.00 23.18
The Witches HBO 2.81 9.40 12.21
Hillbilly Elegy Netflix 2.40 26.90 29.30
The Lovebirds Netflix 1.69 29.60 31.29
Palm Springs Hulu 0.51 69.10 69.61
Superintelligence HBO 0.45 5.30 5.75
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Netflix 0.26 65.30 65.56
Mank Netflix 0.10 60.50 60.60
So what do you think? Looks good? Makes no sense? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Happy New Year everyone!! Let’s hope it is.
Bruce, I watched a bunch of those streaming films the past couple of years and enjoyed some of them too. I can see why you want to include them on the UMR since big movie stars and top directors are migrating towards TV, and who can blame them?
You won’t be able to include box office grosses for these films and I know that’s frustrating, but if you can work out a UMR score give it a go. Currently you have Enola Holmes at the top of your experimental chart, it was fun and I enjoyed it but you’ve got it topping films like Mank, Soul, Da 5 Bloods and The Trial of the Chicago 7. I know number of views is important to the final score but rating scores should figure highly too.
Btw when I add Rotten Tomatoes scores to the ratings averages on my videos I ignore the main tomatometer rating and look inside at the ratings details, which currently has Enola Holmes scoring a 7.1 average from 184 ratings. Which is pretty good.
Hey Steve…..Happy New Year to you as well. Thanks for the feedback. The first table was only looking at the streaming numbers…which would correspond to the box office section in the UMR formula. Enola Holmes appears to be the second most popular movie of 2020 when it comes to streaming. My current approach would leave Enola in 37th place….but with this tweak it would reach the Top 10 (7th).
MovieYear MovieScorePct
Bad Boys For Life (2020) 95.92 1st
Sonic The Hedgehog (2020) 90.39 2nd
Onward (2020) 84.26 3rd
Invisible Man, The (2020) 83.75 4th
Birds of Prey (2020) 81.39 5th
Tenet (2020) 80.84 6th
Enola Holmes (2020) 78.24 7th
Gentlemen, The (2019) 77.33 8th
Call Of The Wild, The (2020) 76.85 9th
Croods: A New Age, The (2020) 75.58 10th
Soul (2020) 75.36 11th
Old Guard, The (2020) 74.47 12th
Nomadland (2020) 73.87 13th
Trial of the Chicago 7, The (2020) 73.65 14th
Father, The (2020) 73.45 15th
Christmas Chronicles 2, The (2020) 71.57 16th
Palm Springs (2020) 69.61 17th
Ammonite (2020) 68.59 18th
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020) 65.56 19th
News of the World (2020) 66.53 20th
WoC does not like this approach at all…..so it will be awhile before we decide which way to go.
Thanks for the information behind your rankings. Good stuff.
How about how many times a movie was rated on the IMDB times the average ticket price for that year. For example Mulan currently has 97,428 votes on the IMDB. Extraction has 154,376. The Trial of the Chicago 7 has 77, 611, Soul has 89,834, The Old Guard 121, 290, The Witches only has 20,262 (potential flop if it had been released to theaters) and Spenser Confidential has 67,331. Then you use this formula for streaming flics.
You figure out a percentage based on votes toward some theatricals, figuring only a small amount of people actually rate the films they’ve seen. This would be excusing say superhero movies or franchises that fanboys will all have to put their mark on (Wonder Woman 1984 currently at 106,230).
Hey Dan. Thanks for the feedback. I like the suggestion…..the only issue would be giving IMDb too much influence on the score…..it is already a huge part of the score when looking at the review %……also…..the IMDb voting seems to pretty much ignore younger people. Christmas Chronicles 2 would be the best example….it is loved by Middle Schoolers….yet it only has 20,000 votes…not thinking many kids go on IMDb. Still…..thanks for offering up another suggestion. I have been thinking about this for the last three or so years….I am beginning to see a solution. Once again..thanks for taking the time to help with this issue.