Mantis is surging on a major streaming chart. The South Korean movie, which debuted on Netflix on September 26, features Squid Game star Im Si-wan as the titular assassin, who must team up with his rival (Park Gyu-young, also of Squid Game seasons 2 and 3) when he returns from a vacation and finds that the assassin community has been shaken up.
Mantis was directed and co-written by Lee Tae-sung, who is best known as an actor in titles such as Rooftop Prince, My Golden Life, and Three Bold Siblings. The cast of the action thriller, which is his feature directorial debut, also includes Jo Woo-jin (Default), Sul Kyung-gu (Kingmaker), and Choi Hyun-wook (Weak Hero Class 1).
Netflix has now shared their global chart of the most-watched Non-English movies on the platform during the week of September 22 through September 28. Mantis debuted on the chart at No. 3 thanks to 7 million viewers amassing a total of 13.2 million viewing hours.
The only two movies ahead of it were also Netflix originals, namely the French romantic comedy French Lover (No. 2), which stars Omar Sy, and the German romantic comedy She Said Maybe (No. 1), which follows a woman discovering that she is related to Turkish nobility.
The movie’s global success has been propelled by the fact that Mantis was in the Top 10 in 44 individual countries during the week measured. It was No. 1 in four of them, namely Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, and its home territory of South Korea.
What This Means For Mantis
This is an impressive result for any debut movie on Netflix, but one factor that has limited Mantis is the fact that it was only available on Netflix for three of the days of the week that is measured by the chart.
This means that it is entirely possible that it could even climb higher on next week’s chart, which will represent the first time that a full week’s viewership has been measured.
Our Take On Mantis’ Netflix Success
Although the Squid Game season 3 finale was the end of the series, which is one of Netflix’s most popular of all time, the success of Mantis proves that the show has done more than just become a record-breaking smash in and of itself. Its legacy includes a wide variety of its cast members finding further success in other Netflix projects.
The streaming service has continued to partner with a number of Squid Game stars for a variety of Netflix original K-dramas and movies, many of which have had a similar level of success as Mantis. This includes Kang Ha-neul’s Wall to Wall, Lee Jin-wook’s Beyond the Bar, and Lee Byung-hun’s The Match.
- Release Date
-
September 26, 2025
- Runtime
-
113 Minutes
- Director
-
Lee Tae-sung