George Clooney reuniting with a fellow mega-star for a savagely average action comedy somehow becomes the streaming alpha

In the conversation about film, a picture’s prestige as a piece of art should be the foremost talking point. What ideas does it deal with? How do all the collaborators approach the work? What are the nuances of the storytelling engine? Are they traditionally robust and efficient, or adventurous in a way that pays off?

All much more engaging questions than how it performs from a box office or streaming chart perspective. for quite a while now.

Now imagine topping a streaming chart — an accomplishment that, given the volatility of viewers’ attention, carries the same weight as spelling your name correctly on your resume — which consists of the same 10-15 movies for most of the year, all while being buoyed by your star power and status as a brand-new movie. I speak, of course, of Wolfs.

Per FlixPatrol, the unceremonious reunion of George Clooney and Brad Pitt — an alliance about as famous as the individuals themselves — has been enjoying a lofty lead at the top of the Apple TV Plus Top 10 film rankings. The caveat to this, of course, is that Apple TV Plus only counts its in-house productions as chart competitors, which number 34 at the time of writing, meaning nearly a third of the platform’s entire library is going to make this list. In other words, no s*** Wolfs is at the top of the charts right now — it’s the new rich kid on a minuscule playground.

The other main caveat to this accomplishment is that Wolfs simply isn’t a great film. There are, of course, far worse positions to be in than a 68% critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but Wolfs doesn’t make much of a secret that its raison d’etre is to let Clooney and Pitt riff on one another like it’s the aughts again. To its credit, that specific exercise works pretty well, but when it comes to the creative food chain, narrative deadweight reigns supreme, and the biome of Wolfs is no exception.

So if you’re turning to Apple TV Plus for movie night, your best bet might not be the popular choice. Indeed, for some of the best the platform has to offer, you’ll have far more luck peering outside of the Top 10, where the likes of CODA, Tetris, Swan Song, Fingernails, Fancy Dance, and Wolfwalkers all reside.