Netflix is known for many things, but true crime (like that disturbing documentary about Kidfluencers) and barely serviceable thrillers (I’m looking at you and your Die Hard-like action movie, Dylan Sprouse) are surely two of the most salient. Now, the streamer has combined the two into the ultimate piece of Netflix “content” and wouldn’t you know it, the result is a worldwide mega-hit.
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“iHostage” is a new thriller from the streamer based upon the real-life hostage event that took place in Amsterdam back in 2022. On February 22 of that year, a 27-year-old gunman entered the Apple Store in Leidseplein, Amsterdam, and held customers hostage for almost five hours, demanding €200 million in cryptocurrency to end the ordeal. The hostage-taker, later identified by Dutch newspaper Het Parool as Abdel Rahman Akkad, focused mainly on one captive customer, a 44-year-old Bulgarian man, while others hid in the store and people on the upper floor of the building remained trapped. During the crisis, police evacuated around 70 people before managing to take out Akkad in a manner that proved controversial in The Netherlands.
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It was a truly horrifying moment, made all the more surreal by the fact the gunman took selfies during the standoff and sent them to local press. What’s more, videos of the aftermath made the rounds on social media, adding an unsavory voyeuristic aspect to an already horrendous situation. Now, Netflix has turned the whole thing into a movie, which is apparently getting even more attention than the original event itself if the streamer’s charts are anything to go by.
iHostage is a global Netflix hit
“iHostage” is directed by Bobby Boermans, who previously oversaw Netflix’s thriller series “The Golden Hour,” which just so happened to be about a terror attack in Amsterdam. His new film, however, is very much based on real events, though “iHostage” does change all the characters’ names and inserts original dialogue into its retelling of the events of February 22, 2022. Boermans also chose to focus on five main characters, and incorporated CCTV and body camera footage to try to maintain a feeling of realism. All of which seems to have earned him and his movie a spot on the Netflix top 10. In fact, it propelled the film to the top of the charts not just in the U.S. or in its native Netherlands, but worldwide.
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“iHostage” debuted on Netflix April 18, 2025, and according to FlixPatrol, a site that tracks streaming viewership data across the various platforms, has become a global hit. As of April 21, 2025, the movie is charting in 92 countries and is number one in 80 of them, including in the U.S. where the film debuted at number two on April 19, before taking the top spot the following day. Elsewhere, “iHostage” has been number one since its arrival on the streamer and has actually remained in the top spot in 30 countries since its debut.
Unsurprisingly, then, all of this has made “iHostage” the number one film in the world on Netflix’s global charts. The movie is currently number two in nine other countries, suggesting it could take the top spot in those markets as the week goes on.
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Is iHostage worth watching?
At the time of writing, “iHostage” doesn’t have enough reviews on Rotten Tomatoes to have earned itself a Tomatometer score. Of the three reviews that are available on the site, two are negative and one is positive. Social media reactions aren’t all that glowing, either, suggesting Netflix’s thriller doesn’t quite live up to its triumphant chart performance.
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Still, director Bobby Boermans seems to have done his best to capture this real-life event in a way that speaks to the real-world issues which drove Abdel Rahman Akkad to do what he did, while also trying to make a decent thriller. The Dutch filmmaker spoke to Time about “iHostage,” revealing that he’d spoken to Apple Store employees and customers, police negotiators, and others during his research and that he wanted his film to speak to “our capacity to support each other, even in the most challenging times.”
Whether he succeeded or not is up to you to decide, but there’s no denying the film’s Netflix success. In order to remain in the number one spot on the global charts, “iHostage” will need to continue to fend off Sofia’s Carson’s romantic comedy “The Life List” which dominated Netflix recently and remains in the number two spot globally. Meanwhile, Mel Gibson’s controversial biblical drama “The Passion of the Christ” is climbing its way up the global charts, so “iHostage” will soon have that to contend with.
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