4 Years Later, the Highest Rated Movie of All Time Officially Takes Over Netflix

Four years after becoming one of the defining theatrical phenomena of the decade, a blockbuster with a near-untouchable audience score has found another runway on Netflix. The 2022 movie currently carries a staggering 99% Popcornmeter from more than 50,000 verified audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, alongside a 96% Tomatometer from 476 critics. Rotten Tomatoes confirms both figures. 

Its streaming arrival has produced an equally muscular response. After entering Netflix U.S. this week, the mystery blockbuster debuted at No. 3 on the service’s daily movie chart on September 24 before climbing to No. 2 the following day. FlixPatrol’s September 24 chart and September 25 ranking track the rapid ascent. Enough circling the runway. The movie is Top Gun: Maverick, and Netflix viewers are apparently still feeling the need for speed.

Top Gun: Maverick Stormed Netflix in Two Days

Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick | Credits: Paramount Pictures

Joseph Kosinski‘s sequel officially joined Netflix U.S. on September 22, while remaining available on Paramount+, its existing subscription-streaming home. What’s on Netflix confirmed its September addition, while Rotten Tomatoes currently lists both Netflix and Paramount+ among its streaming options. The response was almost immediate. By September 24, Maverick had entered Netflix’s U.S. movie ranking at No. 3. One day later, it overtook Best of the Best to claim No. 2, sitting behind only Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. 

That resurgence is less surprising once its original numbers enter the picture. Maverick earned $718.5 million domestically, according to Rotten Tomatoes’ current box-office listing, while its worldwide theatrical haul reached roughly $1.5 billion. It also accomplished something that decades-late sequels routinely fumble: audiences liked it even more than the movie they remembered. Rotten Tomatoes’ verified audience score remains 99% with 50,000+ ratings and a 4.9/5 average, while critics gave it 96%. The site’s consensus argues that the long-delayed sequel actually surpasses its predecessor rather than coasting on nostalgia. 

That is the metric behind the headline’s ‘highest rated’ distinction: among modern blockbusters with tens of thousands of verified Rotten Tomatoes ratings, a 99% score leaves precious little headroom.

Tom Cruise Refused to Make Maverick the Easy Way

Tom Cruise as Pete Maverick Mitchell in Top Gun Maverick | Credit:- Paramount Pictures

The film’s durability becomes easier to understand once the lunacy behind its production enters the equation. Tom Cruise and Kosinski insisted on putting actors inside real F/A-18 Super Hornets rather than manufacturing every flight from the comfort of a soundstage. The cast underwent months of aviation training, while specially developed camera systems captured performers enduring genuine G-forces during the aerial sequences.

Cruise had also resisted making a sequel for decades. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer recalled that Kosinski eventually won him over with the emotional relationship between Maverick and Miles Teller’s Rooster, the son of Maverick’s late wingman Goose. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Bruckheimer described the sequel as something Cruise would only pursue once the story justified returning.

That stubbornness proved lucrative. The movie received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and won the Oscar for Best Sound. The Netflix revival also arrives after Paramount returned Maverick to theaters in May 2026, another indication that four years have done little to diminish its drawing power. Rotten Tomatoes records the May 13 theatrical rerelease alongside its original May 27, 2022 opening. 

Now the same movie that helped lure audiences back into cinemas is doing the opposite job rather well: keeping them planted on the sofa. Can Top Gun: Maverick climb from No. 2 to the top of Netflix, and does any legacy sequel deserve a higher audience score? Tell us where it ranks for you in the comments. Follow FandomWire for more Netflix chart updates, streaming recommendations, and movies finding fresh audiences years after release.