Godzilla vs. King obliterates Tom Cruise hit in Netflix race to take #1 movie spot

The top movies list on Netflix UK is a constant battleground, where new originals go up against kids' classics and older undiscovered gems, and some big-budget action blockbusters are currently going up against each other to take top spot — with a surprising winner.

On Tuesday, September 5, Tom Cruise sci-fi action movie Edge of Tomorrow was added to Netflix UK, alongside 2014 monster disaster film Godzilla and with its second sequel Godzilla vs. Kong.

Surprisingly, it's this last film that's become the most-watched on Netflix, despite being the third film in its series, getting worse reviews and not having Tom Cruise in it.

Godzilla vs Kong is a sequel to Godzilla and that movie's sequel, as well as Kong: Skull Island, and it sees the titular monsters from each franchise meet up and do battle, while a cast of human characters including Alexander Skarsgard and Millie Bobby Brown venture into the hollow earth and also fight and evil businessman who wants to make his own Godzilla from the carcass of other giant monsters.

As you can tell by the plot synopsis, this is a movie that makes a lot more sense if you're caught up in these recent Warner Bros. monster movies. Despite this prerequisite, the movie was successful, making more at the box office than its disappointing predecessor and scoring a fairly positive 75% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Edge of Tomorrow is a standalone movie, though a TV show is on the way and a sequel may be too. It follows Cruise as a public affairs officer who's drafted to fight in an alien invasion; when he accidentally steals the time-loop powers that have been helping the aliens win, he teams up with Emily Blunt to take down these aggressors for good.

Directed by Bourne Identity director Doug Liman and co-written by legendary Mission Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie, the movie was a hit with critics and audiences alike, with its Rotten Tomatoes score at 91% and 90% respectively. It didn't make as much as Godzilla vs. Kong at the box office but enjoys a continued fan following for its exciting action scenes and the wider world of the movie that's hinted at.

As an older movie, Edge of Tomorrow has been on Netflix before, and it's been on Prime Video for a while too (where it is still streaming). So potential movie fans may well have already seen the Tom Cruise hit, while Godzilla vs. Kong is much newer on streaming. That's not to mention that the latter came out during the pandemic, when audiences weren't all as keen to visit a movie theater.

What's surprising, though, is that the first Godzilla movie is losing to its third sequel, as it currently sits at #7 on the movie rankings. The reason for this is likely the same as Edge of Tomorrow: it's not been hard to find on streaming.

Maligned Godzilla sequel King of the Monsters and Kong: Skull Island aren't streaming anywhere right now, but they could come to Netflix at some point too: Warner Bros. has a deal with Netflix which often sees its big movies come to the streamer in the UK (where its streaming app Max isn't available). This would let you marathon all four movies in preparation for the next one, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, due to release in April 2024, as well as upcoming Apple TV Plus show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters which has no expected release date.

If you're a fan of action and adventure movies, you're being spoiled for choice on Netflix right now, and that'll continue through September with the release of more Warner Bros action movies like Those Who Wish Me Dead, Mortal Kombat and Wonder Woman 1984.