Universal’s $2.2B Adventure Franchise Is Dominating Netflix’s American Charts As Fourth Movie Lingers In Development Hell

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A billion-dollar franchise from Universal has ventured onto a major streaming chart 21 years later.

Founded in 1912, Universal is a historic film studio with over a century of experience. They’re responsible for some of the most successful movie franchises ever made, including Fast & Furious (over $7.3 billion), Jurassic Park (over $6.8 billion), Despicable Me (over $5.6 billion), and Shrek (over $4 billion). They also have another massive franchise that’s gaining popularity on streaming services, though it doesn’t currently rank among the top 20 highest-grossing.

The Madagascar movies are a hugely successful animated franchise, ranking as the 11th highest-grossing of all time with over $2.266 billion earned worldwide. It all began in 2005 with the first Madagascar film, which tells the story of four zoo animals – voiced by Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, and David Schwimmer – who unexpectedly find themselves stranded in the wilds of Madagascar after a shipwreck. Since then, the franchise has expanded with two sequels, a spin-off movie called Penguins of Madagascar, and various other content like three animated series, several short films, and the NBC holiday special Merry Madagascar.

Over twenty years after the first film came out, several Madagascar movies are currently popular on Netflix in the United States. All four movies were added to the platform on April 1st, and they’ve each been featured on the daily Top 10 movie list ever since. As of today, the original Madagascar from 2005 is at No. 4, and Madagascar 3: Europe‘s Most Wanted from 2012 is at No. 7. Both films have been in the Top 10 for a week now.

I’ve been noticing that even though I love this animated series, it’s really up against some tough competition right now! A bunch of popular streaming shows are doing incredibly well – like that Moriah Wilson documentary on Netflix, which is at number 3, and the Lamar Odom and Chess Mates episodes of Untold are also in the top 10. Plus, a lot of recent movies are still super popular, like Beast, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Black and Blue, the new Anaconda, and even Minions: The Rise of Gru are all charting really high!

Besides the recent popular Madagascar movies, the 2008 film Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa reached the No. 10 spot on April 7th. The 2014 movie Penguins of Madagascar has also been performing well, briefly hitting No. 6 on April 7th and 8th.

The recent popularity of the Madagascar movies on streaming services could lead to a fourth film. While Universal first considered Madagascar 4 as early as 2010 and officially announced it in 2014 with a planned 2018 release, the project was put on hold and later cancelled due to changes within the company. However, director Tom McGrath recently shared with Animation Scoop that he’s eager to work on another installment, suggesting there’s renewed interest if the films continue to perform well on streaming platforms.

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2026-04-09 19:11