Leave the World Behind: Apocalyptic Thriller, Starring Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali, Tops Netflix with 42 Million Views

Leave the World Behind opened with a bang as the apocalyptic thriller cracked the Netflix Top 10 during the December 4-10 viewing window at No. 1 on the English Films list with 41.7 million views, making it the most-viewed title.

LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND, from left: Ethan Hawke, Julia Roberts, 2023. ph: JoJo Whilden / © Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection
©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
Leave the World Behind opened with a bang as the apocalyptic thriller cracked the Netflix Top 10 during the December 4-10 viewing window at No. 1 on the English Films list with 41.7 million views, making it the most-viewed title.

Viewers were intrigued by trying to dissect that final theory in director Sam Esmail’s adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s novel of the same name.

Starring Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali, the film landed on the streamer on December 8.

The film was followed by Family Switch, starring Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms, which scored the No. 2 spot on the English films chart with 18.6 million views, then Adam Sandler’s animated comedy, Leo.

Also on the chart is part 1 of the sixth and final season of “The Crown” took sixth place with 2.5 million views in its fourth week on the Top 10 chart and Season 5 of “Virgin River” took eighth in its eighth week on the list with 2.2 million views.

Netflix released its bi-annual report giving viewers further insight into its viewing metrics. The report encompasses over 18,000 titles and nearly 100 billion hours viewed between January-June 2023.

One major difference between Netflix’s Top 10 weekly report and the biannual report — the biannual offers data by hours viewed as opposed to total views, which Netflix adopted in June of this year, of titles watched for more than 50,000 hours during the six month time-period. In the streamer’s July-December report, viewers should expect to see licensed titles like “Suits” on the chart as the streamer experienced an increase in licensed projects appear on the platform like Paramount’s “Young Sheldon” and HBO titles like “Insecure” and “Ballers.”