The calendar says spring starts in March, but the weather in many parts of the country may still force people to huddle in dens and family rooms and seek movies to stream – and one of the leading streaming platforms for feature films (as well as series), of course, is Netflix.

To determine the best movies to stream on Netflix this March, 24/7 Tempo developed an index using average ratings on IMDb, an online movie database owned by Amazon, and a combination of audience scores and Tomatometer scores on Rotten Tomatoes, an online movie and TV review aggregator, as of March 2023, weighting all ratings equally. We considered only movies with at least 5,000 audience votes on either IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes, and ruled out documentaries. Data on streaming availability, current as of early March, comes from the streaming guide Reelgood. Directorial credits are from IMDb.

Of the 50 films on our list, 22 of them have at least a 90% Freshness score from Rotten Tomatoes critics. Five of the films received a 90% score or higher from both Rotten Tomatoes audience members as well. (Among the platform’s own productions, these are the 25 best original Netflix movies.)

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There are plenty of movies ready to be streamed based on historical events and real people. These include “Darkest Hour,” “The Aviator,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “First They Killed My Father,” “Philomena,” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” Foreign films weigh in with Oscar-honored “Roma,” “Night Comes For Us,” and “White Tiger.” (See which movies number among the most successful foreign films in America.)

“Notting Hill,” one of six motion pictures on our list that was released in the 20th century, represents the rom-com genre, as does “Always Be My Maybe.” Horror flicks “Creep 2” and Stephen King’s “It” will have viewers ducking under the covers – where at last it will be warm.