Skywalker Hughes is having quite a month. The young actor’s 2024 film Ordinary Angels landed on Netflix on July 21 and shot straight to the number one spot on the platform’s daily Top 10 movies chart in the United States the very next day, and it has held that position since. The Jon Gunn directed drama tells the true story of Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank), a hairdresser in 1994 Louisville, Kentucky who rallies her entire community to help widowed father Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchson) save the life of his critically ill young daughter. Hughes plays Ashley Schmitt, the family’s older daughter, alongside Emily Mitchell as younger sister Michelle and Nancy Travis as Barbara. The film originally opened in theaters through Lionsgate in February 2024 and grossed just over 20 million dollars worldwide against a modest 12 to 13 million dollar budget, but it built a devoted following on home video and digital rental, holding an 84 percent critics score and an eye popping 99 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Now, more than two years after its theatrical run, it appears to have found the audience it always deserved on Netflix, currently sitting ahead of titles like Desire and Wicked: For Good on the platform’s daily chart.
Hughes shared the milestone on her Instagram, posting a screenshot of Ordinary Angels at number one alongside a thank you message to fans for helping push the film to the top of the chart. It caps off a big stretch for the actor, who is also currently starring as Mary Ingalls in Netflix’s new adaptation of Little House on the Prairie. That series premiered July 9 and has already been renewed for a second season, which is currently in production. After a modest debut, Little House on the Prairie climbed to number one on Netflix’s English language TV chart for the week of July 13 through 19, pulling in 9.8 million views and knocking Harlan Coben’s I Will Find You out of the top spot for the first time in five weeks. Between a Netflix original series and a Netflix movie both riding high on the charts at once, Hughes is proving to be one of the platform’s most reliable draws this summer, and TDN will keep following her career as it continues to take off.
