Netflix's star-studded action flick Red Notice has become the biggest film in the streamer’s history. The movie premiered on the streaming giant on November 12 but was first screened at select theatres in the US on November 5. Within a few weeks, the film, which has a runtime of 118 minutes, has already been streamed for 328 million viewing hours, making it the most-watched film on Netflix.
Red Notice producer and actor Dwayne Johnson shared the news on his Twitter account on Tuesday and revealed an even bigger figure of 392 million viewing hours. However, he then posted the news on his Instagram account on Wednesday morning with the corrected figure. Director Rawson Thurber also confirmed the news, and revealed that Red Notice has been on Netflix's Top 10 list in all 94 of its territories since its release.
The Red Notice viewing figures are by far the fastest that any Netflix film has grown since its launch. The streaming giant calculates the first 28 days of a title's debut as “initial release.” Red Notice managed to achieve the top spot within the first 18 days of its release on the streamer. According to numbers revealed by Thurber, the film has already reached 121 million of Netflix’s subscribers.
The record for the most-watched original film on Netflix was previously held by Sandra Bullock's Bird Box, which was viewed for a total of 282 million hours in the first month of its launch back in 2018. Red Notice was on its way to breaking the record within just a week of its release and has already crossed the benchmark before completing its initial release phase.
It isn’t quite surprising to see Red Notice sky rocket to the top Netflix spot. When first announced, it was being promoted as the streamer’s first action film and had a star-studded cast including Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot. The term Red Notice refers to the highest Interpol notice issued for the arrest of a criminal. While fans would expect a purely action-packed adventure, the first Red Notice trailer promised absolutely hilarious moments between Johnson’s FBI agent John Hartley and Reynolds’ art thief Nolan Booth.
It became obvious that the two actors would have fantastic chemistry, and their characters would be forced to work together in a buddy-cop style film. The two were on a mission to catch the most wanted art thief in the world, Gadot’s The Bishop.
Red Notice is streaming on Netflix.
Source: Rawson Thurber/Instagram