Netflix’s New No. 1 Movie Has a 91% Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

A Guy Ritchie action movie starring Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson and Eiza González has found a second life on Netflix, and viewers are responding strongly.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare has climbed to the top of Netflix’s U.S. movie rankings after arriving on the service in September. The 2024 action comedy currently holds a 91% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, compared with a 68% critics’ score.

The film’s renewed popularity is notable because its original theatrical run was relatively modest. It earned about $29 million worldwide, but its arrival on Netflix has given the movie another chance to reach a much larger audience.

Directed by Guy Ritchie, the film combines Ritchie’s fast-moving action style with a World War II story inspired by recently declassified British War Department files and true events.

A World War II Mission With an Unconventional Team

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare follows a secret British combat unit assembled during World War II for a dangerous mission against the Nazis.

The team is made up of soldiers and operatives who are willing to ignore conventional military rules. Their mission calls for sabotage, deception and an approach that is deliberately far from traditional warfare.

The story is based on a real wartime operation and presents the group as an early example of the type of unconventional fighting that would later influence the development of the British SAS and modern special operations.

That historical foundation is mixed with the humor, exaggerated action and stylish character work associated with Ritchie.

Henry Cavill Leads a Surprisingly Stacked Cast

One of the movie’s biggest attractions is its cast.

Henry Cavill plays Gus March-Phillips, leading a team that includes Alan Ritchson as Anders Lassen and Eiza González as Marjorie Stewart. The cast also includes Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, Henrique Zaga, Til Schweiger, Henry Golding and Cary Elwes.

Ritchson, in particular, has become increasingly familiar to Netflix viewers. He stars in Reacher and also appeared in the Netflix original War Machine. A sequel to War Machine has reportedly been in development, while Ritchson has also discussed the possibility of taking on a DC Universe role.

Cavill brings another major franchise connection. Before The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, he spent years playing Superman in the DC Extended Universe. He also starred in The Man from U.N.C.L.E., the stylish spy film that can easily come to mind when looking at his more recent action roles.

Cavill has another direct connection to Netflix through The Witcher, in which he played Geralt of Rivia for three seasons before leaving the role. Liam Hemsworth subsequently took over as Geralt.

González has likewise become a familiar face across major action and science-fiction productions. Her credits include Baby Driver and Godzilla vs. Kong, while Netflix viewers may also know her from 3 Body Problem, which is set to return.

There is one more connection tying the movie to Netflix: director Guy Ritchie also created The Gentlemen, the Netflix series that recently aired its second season and is set to return for a third.

So although The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is not a Netflix original, much of its cast and creative team already has strong ties to the streaming service.

Critics and Audiences See the Movie Differently

The Rotten Tomatoes numbers tell an interesting story.

Critics have given the film a 68% Tomatometer score, while the audience score sits at 91% from more than 1,000 verified ratings.

That gap suggests the movie has connected more strongly with general viewers than with professional critics. Rotten Tomatoes’ audience summary describes it as an action film with strong performances and a story rooted in actual events.

The movie was released theatrically on April 19, 2024, before its streaming release on May 10, 2024. It has a runtime of two hours and carries an R rating for strong violence throughout and some language.

Netflix added the movie to its U.S. catalog on September 16, 2026, where it quickly became one of the service’s most-watched films.

From No. 2 to No. 1 on Netflix

When this article was originally published on September 19, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was sitting at No. 2 on Netflix’s U.S. movie chart.

By the September 21 update, it had moved into the No. 1 position.

That pushed The Seemingly Perfect Family down to No. 2, while Best of the Best, a new Netflix original dance movie starring Never Have I Ever actor Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, occupied No. 3.

Another title worth noting was The Whisper Man, the Robert De Niro serial-killer movie, which remained at No. 6 and had spent a considerable amount of time in Netflix’s Top 10.

Also appearing on the chart was The AI Doc: Or How I Became An Apocaloptimist, a documentary examining the risks and dangers surrounding the rapidly developing artificial intelligence industry. Its subject matter makes it particularly relevant to the current technology landscape.

Another Netflix Movie to Watch: Unabomber

Looking ahead to the rest of September, Unabomber is another major Netflix release to keep an eye on.

The film stars Russell Crowe, Jacob Tremblay, Annabelle Wallis and Shailene Woodley. Netflix describes it as a drama inspired by true events, following Ted Kaczynski’s transformation from a Harvard prodigy into the Unabomber while the FBI investigates him.

Tremblay plays Kaczynski, while Crowe portrays Harvard professor Henry Murray. Woodley plays FBI agent Joanne Miller, and Wallis appears as Christiana Morgan. The movie was directed by Janus Metz and written by Sam Chalsen and Nelson Greaves.

Unabomber is scheduled to arrive on Netflix on September 25, 2026.

With a cast that includes several established stars and a story drawn from one of the most notorious criminal cases in modern American history, it could become another significant addition to Netflix’s September lineup.

For now, though, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare has already made its move. The Guy Ritchie action comedy has gone from a relatively modest theatrical performance to Netflix’s No. 1 movie, backed by a 91% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.