The Best Films Ranked By Critics—From ‘Animal House’ To ‘World War Z’

Topline

These are the most highly rated films coming to Netflix in March, ranked by critics scores reported by Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.

Key Facts

The Top 10 Films

1. Carol (2015), March 20 (94% Rotten Tomatoes, 94% Metacritic)
2. National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978), March 1 (91% Rotten Tomatoes, 85% Metacritic)
3. Rango (2011), March 1 (88% Rotten Tomatoes, 75% Metacritic)
4. Easy A (2010), March 1 (85% Rotten Tomatoes, 72% Metacritic)
5. The Hangover (2009), March 1 (79% Rotten Tomatoes, 73% Metacritic)
6. Sleepless in Seattle (1993), March 1 (75% Rotten Tomatoes, 72% Metacritic)
7. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015), March 1 (70% Rotten Tomatoes, 65% Metacritic)
8. Out of Africa (1985), March 1 (61% Rotten Tomatoes, 69% Metacritic)
9. World War Z (2013), March 7 (66% Rotten Tomatoes, 63% Metacritic)
10. Magic Mike XXL (2015), March 1 (65% Rotten Tomatoes, 60% Metacritic)

Surprising Fact

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 will be the only movie from the Hunger Games series available to stream on Netflix once it hits the platform on March 1.

Tangent

Magic Mike XXL will debut on Netflix just weeks after the third installment in the franchise, Magic Mike’s Last Dance, hit theaters. The film has grossed $47.8 million at the global box office so far, though it has the lowest review scores of any of the three Magic Mike films—it has just 49% on Rotten Tomatoes and 52% on Metacritic.

Key Background

The Rotten Tomatoes critics score, known as the Tomatometer, is the percentage of critics that have given the film a positive review. A movie with at least 60% positive reviews is given a fresh tomato symbol, while those with a score of less than 60% are given a splat symbol. Metacritic calculates a weighted average of critics’ reviews, assigning different weights to each critic and publication depending on importance or quality. Scores are displayed in green, yellow or red — indicating favorable, mixed or unfavorable reviews — and films with a score of at least 81% are designated as “must-see.” Both Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic track user ratings and allow users to write reviews, though these are displayed separately from critics’ scores.

Further Reading

The Very Best Films Added In February To Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu And HBO Max (Forbes)

Netflix’s Password Sharing Crackdown—And What Amazon Prime, Hulu, Others Are Doing—Explained (Forbes)