Earlier this year, Selma star David Oyelowo marked the 10th anniversary of Ava DuVernay’s civil rights drama by recounting something one of the film’s executive producers — a man named Brad Pitt — told him a decade ago. As Oyelowo told Deadline, he was upset by the film’s mediocre box office numbers (FYI: It grossed just over three times its $20 million budget, which wouldn’t be shabby in 2024) and the fact that it only received two Oscar nominations (including, admittedly, one for Best Picture), and felt — rightly so! — that he deserved more. Pitt responded by telling the actor not to worry, assuring him that he wouldn’t know “what your movie is” for another ten years.

Pitt was right; far from being forgotten, Selma is now rightly considered a modern classic, with Oyelowo’s performance considered perhaps the definitive portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr. on screen. Certainly, despite its flaws, streaming has played a key role in getting a film like Selma the audience it deserves. Yes, it’s harder than ever for smaller and lesser-known titles or box office flops to become cult hits, but if you’re lucky enough to have your film released on a platform like Netflix, it can suddenly take on new life.

Of course, the streamer itself is a double-edged sword. For every lesser-known title that actually deserves its success on the service (like Bryan Cranston’s legal drama “Your Honor”), it seems like another boring Kevin Hart movie somehow finds its way to the top of the Netflix charts. Fortunately, this week’s surprise entry into Netflix’s top 10 – Ti West and Mia Goth’s critically acclaimed 2022 horror film “Pearl” – is one of those titles that actually deserves a second boost.

For us notoriously online folks, it’s easy to forget that the average Netflix subscriber had probably never heard of “Pearl” before it showed up on the service earlier this month — let alone that it’s part of a full trilogy of horror genre pastiches that also includes “X” and “MaXXXine” (also directed by West). Streaming aggregator FlixPatrol now reports that “Pearl” entered the service’s top 10 in the U.S. on August 20, 2024, and could stay there in the coming days alongside films like “Minions” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” That’s not bad considering that “Pearl” grossed less over its entire theatrical run ($10.1 million) than those two billion-dollar animation behemoths, which blasted out in a matter of hours on opening day.

A prequel to West’s “X” trilogy (which will also hit theaters in 2022), “Pearl” explores the life of its namesake – who in “X” committed the so-called Texas Porn Star Murders as an older woman (goth with age makeup) – as a young small-town woman (also goth, without age makeup) with big dreams during World War I. Here’s what I wrote about “Pearl” before the Netflix premiere:

West gives this story the style of the Technicolor classics that Pearl finds so stunning, and the result is like The Wizard of Oz reimagined as a mad horror film about the dark side of show business ambition. It is Goth in particular who really impresses as the film’s lead actor and co-writer, delivering a brilliant performance that culminates in a stunning monologue in a single take. Horrific, sad and funny all at the same time, this trip under the rainbow is not to be missed.

With all three parts of West’s “X” trilogy now available digitally or via streaming, this is a good time for you newbies to find out what all the fuss is about. Who knows: Maybe in 10 years, Pearl will be the star she always dreamed of being.