A Jennifer Lopez crime thriller hated by most critics is gaining traction on Netflix’s U.S. Top 10 movies chart.
The Boy Next Door—which debuted on Netflix on July 16—stars Lopez as Claire Peterson, a newly separated schoolteacher who has a one-night stand with a 19-year-old former student, Noah Sandborn (Ryan Guzman).
Complicating matters is that Noah is a friend of Claire’s son. Worse yet, Noah becomes enraged when Claire tries to break off the relationship.
According to Netflix, The Boy Next Door—which was released in theaters in 2015—debuted at No. 10 on the streamer’s Top 10 U.S. Movies chart for the week of July 22-28.
Unlike Netflix’s weekly Global Top 10 Movies chart, the streamer does not release information for the number of viewers or viewing hours for the films on the chart.
How Did Critics And Audiences Respond To ‘The Boy Next Door’?
The Boy Next Door is one of the five worst-reviewed movies to join Netflix in July.
Rotten Tomatoes critics gave The Boy Next Door a 12% “rotten” rating based on 139 reviews. The RT Critics Consensus for the movie reads, The Boy Next Door may get a few howls out of fans of stalker thrillers, but for most viewers, it won't even rise to ‘so bad it's good status.”
Viewers were a bit kinder to The Boy Next Door, giving the movie a 34% “rotten” Audience Score based on 25,000-plus RT user ratings.
Despite the drubbing the movie took from critics, The Boy Next Door still found an audience in theaters.
According to The Numbers, the film earned $36 million domestically and nearly $17.4 million internationally for a worldwide box office total of $53.4 million.
The box office tracker noted that The Boy Next Door had a production budget of $4 million before prints and advertising costs.
Lopez has weathered critical storms on Netflix before. In late May, Lopez’s Netflix original sci-fi movie Atlas defied negative reviews to debut at No. 1 on the streamer’s global movies chart.
For the week of May 20-26, Atlas had 28.2 million views, which equated to 56.3 million viewing hours. At the time of release, Rotten Tomatoes critics gave the film an 11% “rotten” rating based on 19 reviews. As of this publication, however, the film’s rating has risen to 19% “rotten” based on 110 reviews.