Netflix spent a reported $13.6 billion on original content in 2021. That enormous budget, one of the biggest of any entertainment company on the planet, funds a huge slate of films and television shows; Netflix uploads an average of two to three new movies or series every single day of the year. It’s a staggering amount of stuff to watch.

And yet despite the inordinate amount of money Netflix spends on its own content, and despite the fact that its algorithm directs users to Netflix’s movies and shows, the more you browse Netflix’s viewership data available at Top10.Netflix.com, the more you see that a lot of the most popular stuff on the site is not what they produce; it’s weird old junk from traditional Hollywood studios.

This week, for example, the most-viewed Netflix original in the U.S. is Judd Apatow’s new comedy The Bubble — but it came in sixth on the top ten films list behind five random catalog titles. The most popular movie amongst American Netflix users at the moment is the 2009 Sandra Bullock drama The Blind Side. (Shrek Forever After is #2.)

The more you dig into this Netflix Top10 website — which lets you look at the ten most popular movies and shows in every single country around the globe where the service is available — the more you find bizarre and obscure titles that are inexplicable smash hits on streaming. Here are just ten recent examples:

The Random Movies That Are Inexplicable Hits On Netflix Around the World

These old, random, or flat-out bad films appear in the Netflix Top 10 most-watched movies in many countries around the world.
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