Published Jun 20, 2026, 12:01 PM EDT
Brennan Klein (he/him) is a senior news writer at Screen Rant, host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast, and contributor at Alternate Ending and Horror Press. He has been writing and podcasting about pop culture (especially horror movies) for over a decade at platforms including Blumhouse, Fangoria, Dread Central, The Backlot, and Arrow in the Head.
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Netflix viewers are falling in love with one of their newest titles.
Although Netflix is perhaps best known for their hit series, including Stranger Things, The Crown, Squid Game, and Wednesday, the streaming platform has released hundreds of original movies over the years, in a wide variety of genres. One genre in which they have carved out a key niche is romance, between holiday-themed rom-com franchises like The Christmas Prince, literary adaptations like People We Meet on Vacation, and A-list originals like their new Jennifer Lopez vehicle Office Romance. The movie, which also stars its co-writer Bret Goldstein (Ted Lasso), has been Netflix’s No. 1 movie worldwide for two consecutive weeks.
Netflix’s latest offering in the romance genre is 2026’s Voicemails for Isabelle, which debuted on June 19. The movie, which was written and directed by Leah McKendrick (Scrambled), follows a young woman named Jill (Zoey Deutch) who leaves voicemails for her late sister Isabelle, not realizing that they are being sent to real estate agent Wes (Nick Robinson), who now has Isabelle’s number and begins to fall for Jill. The original movie, which also stars Lukas Gage, Harry Shum Jr., and Emmy winner Nick Offerman, was well received by critics, earning a score of 83% on Rotten Tomatoes.
However, it is performing even better with general audiences. Rotten Tomatoes has now aggregated more than 100 user reviews of Voicemails for Isabelle, which is enough for it to earn an official score on the Popcornmeter. While the score could fluctuate as more reviews are added, at the time of writing it has earned a near-perfect 94%.
This sees Voicemails for Isabelle blowing Office Romance out of the water. While the Jennifer Lopez movie is a streaming hit with a star-studded cast, critics only gave it 49% on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences gave it an even lower Popcornmeter score of 45%. The new movie is also doing better than Netflix’s other No. 1 romance of 2026, the Emily Henry adaptation People We Meet on Vacation. That movie, which stars Tom Blyth and Emily Bader, has 78% from critics and 69% from audiences.
Voicemails for Isabelle is also outperforming the majority of the theatrical titles that are kicking off the summer blockbuster season. In fact, of the current box office Top 5, the only title with a better Popcornmeter score is Pixar’s new sequel, *Toy Story 5 *(95%). *Voicemails *has tied with the buzzy new horror movie *Obsession *(94%) and handily bested the new Steven Spielberg movie *Disclosure Day *(71%), the horror parody legacy sequel *Scary Movie *(66%), and A24’s smash hit *Backrooms *(74%).
It remains to be seen if Voicemails for Isabelle ends up becoming a No. 1 streaming hit as well, because it has only just debuted and **Netflix **will not release their streaming numbers for the week until Tuesday, June 23. However, if this Rotten Tomatoes enthusiasm translates to viewership, it is entirely possible that Voicemails could usurp Office Romance on the platform’s global chart, preventing the Jennifer Lopez movie from continuing its reign into a third weekend.
Voicemails for Isabelle ](/db/movie/voicemails-for-isabelle/)
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Leah McKendrick
Leah McKendrick
Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch, Todd Black, Becky Sanderman