Animals tops Netflix with 23.8 million views as Ben Affleck turns politics into a moral thriller
A candidate for mayor of Los Angeles can spend months promising to protect families, respect the law and act in the public interest. But what happens to those promises when his own child is kidnapped? Ben Affleck builds Animals around that contradiction, creating a thriller in which political ambition and personal survival become impossible to separate. Released on Netflix on October 9, 2026, the film accumulated 23.8 million views in its first three days on the service, taking the No. 1 position among English-language movies worldwide. The result brings renewed attention to a question that has appeared repeatedly in Affleck's filmmaking: how far can someone go while continuing to believe they are acting for the right reasons?