House of Pizza: The February 2022 JustWatch Top 10
Though the title of our article may read as being particularly appetizing, unfortunately we will not be discussing a movie about, say, an abode made entirely of cheese, bread and tomato sauce. When that day does finally dawn, though, we will certainly be ready to type.
If you’re wondering what movies were on the minds of the U.S. film-lovers scouring JustWatch for their best streaming destinations during the month of February, wonder no more, dear pals.
JustWatch has once again supplied us with a top 10 list detailing which movies were the most-searched on their platform last month. Again, JustWatch is a resource when you’re looking to figure out just where you can stream virtually any movie at present within your country. It arrives with Trailers From Hell’s full seal of approval.
Last month, with prestige pictures getting some shine as Oscar season got fully underway, film fiends found themselves striving to figure out just where they could watch some of the most highly-touted big-ticket adult-oriented movies of 2021, plus some popcorn holdovers like sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife, prequel The King’s Man, and resilient high-concept sci-fi video game fantasy Free Guy.
Several premium flicks from high-profile helmers made the most-searched cut, with Trailers From Hell Guru Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley remake topping the list (it’s available to stream, for free with a subscription, on Hulu and HBO Max right now, incidentally).
Licorice Pizza, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s return to his home neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s and like Nightmare Alley a Best Picture nominee, was the third most-sought out movie of the period. A pair of other Best Picture nominees from famous directors also dot the list: the West Side Story remake from Steven Spielberg and Belfast from Kenneth Branagh.
One other adult-oriented movie from a Hall of Fame-level director that many folks may have assumed would make the Academy Award nominees luncheon cut, but was only nominated in a single technical category (Makeup and Hairstyling), also charted this month. That would be Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci, the meandering over-the-top period crime biopic packed to the brim with funny accents.
Holdovers from last month’s list include the aforementioned Nightmare Alley, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Free Guy, plus Sing 2 and the new Dune adaptation. Another 2021 Ridley Scott release (the prolific 84-year-old shows no signs of slowing down!), The Last Duel, actually cracked the top five last month.
The rate of critically-appraised movies targeted towards people perhaps beyond the coveted 18-to-34-year-old demographic operates as an encouraging sign that there is still a stateside passion for cinematic content that delves a bit deeper than, say, movies about singing or punching people in the face. To be fair, this list represents just one metric, and a somewhat limited one at that.
A note on these rankings: they are gauged by an internal JustWatch-generated “popularity score,” primarily drawn from the search numbers for savvy fans who (a) are looking to stream movies, not watch them theatrically, and (b) know to consult JustWatch for their streaming needs. Whether or not the searched-for movies were streamed at the same rate relative to each other is not being measured with this list. Licorice Pizza, for instance, was not available to be streamed until this month.