Gal Gadot and Boss Baby are actually huge for Netflix
In the wake of last fall’s WGA contract negotiations, which demanded greater transparency about what was watched on streaming services, the normally secretive Netflix opted to regularly share viewership figures. “This has been a continuum for several years,” said co-CEO Ted Sarandos Variety Last December, it was suggested that the streamer’s first-ever ‘What We Watched’ engagement report was just a way to catch up and not at all about being held accountable by the industry. Sure, Janetc.
The initial report showed how essential licensed TV and movies still were to a platform that was spend oodles with pride on original content. The story can be found in the second report released Thursday, which breaks down viewership and streaming hours in both film and television categories from July through December 2023, is more about the surprises: things you might assume were blockbuster hits for the streamer , seemed more like modest victories, while less obvious projects apparently scored big. Gal Gadot is also a Netflix star.
Did you see Heart of stone when it fell last August? Slick action film with Gadot as super spy (checks) Rachel Stone? Not a film that comes up much in conversations. (For what it’s worth, we dug it well enough thanks to some pretty clever stunts.) But despite its lack of cultural footprint, the latest from the studio and the star that brought you Red notice was a pretty notable hit for Netflix; According to the engagement report, 109.6 million people watched the film in the first five months on the platform. That beats movies like Lionthe down-the-middle children’s film starring Adam Sandler, David Fincher’s The murdererand even the platform release of Super Mario. Oh, and 27 million people caught up too Red message — the Heart of stone effect is real!!
There was an even bigger winner for Netflix in terms of film production: the apocalyptic chamber drama Leaving the world behind, starring Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali, which racked up 121 million views without an action movie price tag. Both Leaving the world behind And Heart of stone defeated what should have been Netflix’s massive holiday blockbuster, Rebel Moon: A child of fire, which amounted to 57.8 million. While Zack Snyder’s film may see a bump in the next round of number crunching thanks to its recent sequel, it isn’t one Awesome seems to be dominated by 2017 The boss baby In the graphs.
On the TV side, no series could eclipse the hit films based on pure viewership, but there do appear to be winners. Unlike Netflix’s previous live-action anime experiment, Cowboy Bebopfor which viewers actually showed up A piece, which clocked 541.9 million hours of watch time in its first season (up from 71.6 million views). Compare that with The witcher season 3, a major series that seems to have struggled with just 363.8 million hours (and 47.9 million views). Netflix’s TV chart also saw wins in nonfiction and international programming, with Korean series making up nine percent of total viewership across the platform.
There are plenty of wild statistics in the engagement report, and many conclusions can be drawn as the streaming industry enters the era of cost-cutting, bundling, and shaking up business strategy. You can read the entire report at Netflix’s corporate site.