Summary
- Cold Meat took No. 9 on the Netflix global Top 10 chart.
- The indie 2024 survival movie was watched for 5.8 million hours in a single week.
- Cold Meat was perfectly poised to become a Netflix hit after the success of Society of the Snow.
Cold Meat has become a global Netflix hit. A co-production between the United Kingdom and Canada, writer-director Sébastien Drouin's Cold Meat is a snowy survival thriller movie along the lines of The Mountain Between Us and 2010's Frozen, but with a supernatural twist. It follows a man who rescues a waitress from an abusive ex, only to end up trapped in his broken-down car in a snowy ravine, fighting for survival against a cannibalistic spirit. The movie, which had a limited theatrical release in February 2024, stars Downton Abbey's Allen Leech, Doom: Annihilation's Nina Bergman, and Outlander's Yan Tual.
Netflix has now calculated their official list of the Top 10 most-watched English-language movies for the week of May 27 through June 2. Cold Meat nabbed a place on the list at No. 9, thanks to 3.9 million viewers accumulating a total of 5.8 million hours viewed. The movie edged out the Marvel superhero blockbuster Madame Web, which took No. 10 during its third week on the chart after premiering at No. 2. This has been the case in spite of the movie not being available in the United States, one of the platform's major markets.
Cold Meat Was Perfectly Placed To Become A Netflix Hit
The Movie Follows Another Major Snowy Survival Thriller
Overall, it makes sense why the movie would join the Top 10 list, performing competitively against recent Netflix original movies including Atlas, Mother of the Bride, and Thelma the Unicorn. One possible reason for its success is its generally good reception, earning a solidly Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 92%. The movie has not earned an audience score yet, but this number indicates that the reaction from critics has been overwhelmingly positive. Below, see how its critics score compares to every movie that is currently on the Netflix Top 10:
Rank | Title | RT Score |
|---|---|---|
#1 | Atlas (2024) | 19% |
#2 | Ice Age: Collision Course (2016) | 18% |
#3 | Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) | 46% |
#4 | Mother of the Bride (2024) | 14% |
#5 | Thelma the Unicorn (2024) | 67% |
#6 | Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023) | 52% |
#7 | Sing 2 (2021) | 72% |
#8 | Security (2016) | N/A |
#9 | Cold Meat (2024) | 92% |
#10 | Madame Web (2024) | 11% |
However, in addition to its critical reception, another important possible reason for Cold Meat becoming a hit is the fact that it has joined the streaming platform in the wake of the success of 2023's Society of the Snow. That movie, which was directed by The Orphanage's J.A. Bayona, followed the real-life story of a rugby team who fought to survive after their plane crash-landed in the Andes. The movie, which earned a Certified Fresh score of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, was a huge hit for the streaming service, going on to be nominated for two Oscars.
The story of the crash of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which forms the basis of Society of the Snow, was previously adapted to the screen in the 1993 movie Alive.
Another aspect that likely helped Cold Meat succeed was the fact that it also features certain parallels to the hit Showtime series Yellowjackets, which similarly revolves around cannibalism with a supernatural angle. However, given the fact that Society of the Snow was a Netflix co-production, it is possible that the service may have prioritized bringing another wintry survival thriller into the fold based on that particular hit. Whether intentional or not, the decision seems to have paid off by bringing more attention to the independent movie.
Will Cold Meat Get A Sequel?
Precedent Says Cold Meat 2 Is A Possibility
It remains to be seen if the newfound attention for Cold Meat will lead to the movie getting a sequel, but this is far from unheard of for movie and television releases in the wake of achieving Netflix success, even for titles that aren't Netflix originals. For instance, after the USA Network legal drama Suits, which ended in 2019, became a record-breaking hit on the service, a pilot for a spinoff titled Suits: LA was put into production by NBC, though the show has not yet been officially picked up to series.
The success of Cold Meat is nowhere near the billions of minutes that were racked up by Suits. However, because it's a much smaller-scale independent production, even a significantly lower amount of success could be enough to push producers to mount a sequel. There is also a solid precedent for this happening when survival thrillers in particular hit big on Netflix, as the upcoming Fall 2 was put into production after the 2022 low-budget original appeared in the Netflix Top 10 despite already having been a theatrical success, earning $21.8 million against its $3 million budget.
Fall has a Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 79%, with an audience score that exactly matches it.
It is difficult to judge how much viewership Cold Meat would have to draw to counteract the fact that it earned little money in theaters during its minor limited release. Ultimately, it seems likely it will have to continue garnering success on Netflix and stay on the chart for a few more weeks to build up enough steam to earn a proper sequel. However, Cold Meat 2 could very well be on the way before long, even if it has to center on a different cast depending on the stars' availability and the fates of their characters.
Source: Netflix
