The Shawshank Redemption. Schindler’s List. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The Dark Knight.
Some of the best-rated movies ever made are available on Netflix — but not all versions of Netflix. A new study that combines IMDb user scores and award nominations and wins by all available titles on Netflix has found that the Czech version of the streaming platform features the best movies out of all localizations around the world.
The Czech localization of Netflix currently contains IMDb’s long-running top-rated film, The Shawshank Redemption, for example. But this movie isn’t available to stream on Netflix in the United States or the United Kingdom, among other locations.
The study, carried out by UK-based price comparison website Uswitch, used the ranking service Flixgem to sort Netflix availability and IMDb user scores and added in the total number of award wins and nominations for all available movies. A final Netflix score (out of 100) was then assigned to each country’s Netflix catalogue.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Czech Republic came out first in the list of countries with the best movies available on Netflix, with a Netflix score of 100. Japan came in second (97.99), followed by South Korea (94.33), Hungary (93.07), and Germany (90.77).
In separate rankings for TV series, the United Kingdom was found to have the highest-rated TV series available on Netflix (with a score of 100), followed by Belgium (94.64), Thailand (94.49), Singapore (94.14) and Switzerland (94.12).
The Czech Republic did not crack the top 15 in the TV series rankings. In overall rankings that combined both movies and TV series, however, the Czech Republic finished second only to Japan for the best-rated titles available on Netflix across films and TV shows.
The study may not be entirely accurate. Using data provided by Flixgem and not directly from IMDb, for example, the Swedish comedy The Dream House (Drömkåken) was identified as the best movie available on Netflix with an IMDb score of 9.4. On IMDb, however, the film actually rates a far more modest 5.5.
Similarly, Flixgem rates the Egyptian drama The Consul’s Son (Ibn el-Qunsul) a 9.1 (it scores 6.6 on IMDb proper) and the Czech classic Green Gold (Starci na chmelu) a 9.0 (it rates 7.2 on IMDb). Assuming mistakes like these are repeated across all localizations, however, they shouldn’t make a large difference in the final results.
And of course, titles available on Netflix are changing all the time. When the study was conducted, The Godfather Parts I & II were both available on the streaming platform, but they’ve since disappeared.
However, gangster classics like Goodfellas, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Once Upon a Time in America – in its full four-hour director’s cut – are all currently available on the Czech version of Netflix.
Other classics now streaming on Netflix in the Czech Republic – but perhaps not elsewhere – include Jaws, The Big Lebowski, Back to the Future, The Matrix, Seven, Blade Runner, and Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
According to a press release, the study was accurate as of September 16, 2021.
These are the countries with the best available movies on Netflix as ranked by Uswitch:
1. Czech Republic
2. Japan
3. South Korea
4. Hungary
5. Germany
6. India
7. Switzerland
8. Romania
9. Belgium
10. Slovakia
11. Canada
12. United Kingdom
13. Italy
14. Hong Kong
15. Australia
