‘Nimona’ Debuts At No. 9 On Netflix’s Top 10, ‘PAW Patrol: The Movie’ Is No. 6

Netflix has unveiled its weekly Top 10 for June 26 – July 2, and despite only being available for three of those days, Nick Bruno and Troy Quane’s Netflix Original Nimona cracked the English-Language feature list at number nine.

Nimona wasn’t the only animated feature to appear in this week’s top 10, although the other was an acquisition. PAW Patrol: The Movie has now been on the list for six non-consecutive weeks and landed in sixth place for the June 26 – July 2 frame.

In terms of Netflix Animation, Nimona is the third straight feature produced by the division to debut in the top 10, following Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio and Wendy Rogers’ The Magician’s Elephant.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that Nimona’s 5.5 million viewer hours are a mere fraction of Pinocchio’s 28 million after three days and even further behind The Sea Beast’s 33.5 million in its first weekend. Those films were massive hits, though, garnering critical and audience praise as well as Oscar nominations and both got larger marketing campaigns than did Nimona.

The worst news for Netflix’s latest is that Nimona’s three-day viewer hours were well behind Scrooge: A Christmas Carol’s 8.17 million. That film was a critical bomb and didn’t come near the artistic or narrative highs of Nimona. It also received very little marketing.

Despite Nimona’s lackluster debut figures, there could be long-term hope for the movie. There is a lot of positive word of mouth surrounding the film and critics have almost universally loved it. It will be interesting to track how that translates into long-term viewership for a film that deserves it.

Jamie’s Take: Nimona is one of Netflix’s strongest original animated offerings to date and one of this year’s best animated films. It’s ripe for possible sequels and spinoffs, similar to The Sea Beast, and we hope audiences find their way to the film.

A correction was made on July 11, 2023: This article misstated that “Nimona” was the first Netflix Animation feature to debut in Netflix’s top 10 since “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.” “The Magician’s Elephant,” released on March 17, 2023, also debuted in the streamer’s top 10 rankings and spent a total of three weeks on the list.