The star-studded action heist movie Red Notice, which only dropped on Netflix this month, is already packing a punch in the rating department. The movie is set to become the most-watched film on Netflix globally, potentially unseating another familiar Netflix original from the top spot in the next couple of weeks.
In the course of its first ten days on Netflix, Red Notice easily entered the streamer’s Top 10 Most Popular English Films of all time and now it’s reportedly clocked a massive 277.9m hours of streaming time. This makes it the second most-watched movie on initial release and heavily suggests that it’s on track to take over Bird Box very soon. Additionally, Red Notice has entered Netflix’s Top 10 in all 94 of its territories for the second week in a row, proving the feature is turning out to be a truly global phenomenon.
As the current holder of the coveted number one spot of most hours streamed in the first 28 days of release, the Sandra Bullock-helmed Bird Box racked up 282 million viewing hours. The first 28 days of a title's debut is the period of time that Netflix refers to as “initial release.” This data is published as part of Netflix’s revamped “Global Top 10” website, which posts weekly figures of most-watched TV and films on the streamer. The website came about as a result of complaints about Netflix's “cherry-picking” of self-reported data and is an effort on its part for more transparency over ratings. The company’s previous metric for compiling viewing data was counting the number of accounts that watched a title for at least 2 minutes, but this has now been replaced by aggregate viewing hours.
The success of the movie may come as a surprise to some, as the reviews for Red Notice were generally unfavorable. Yet despite its dismissal as another forgettable Netflix original, the caper has evidently been hugely popular not just in English language markets but across the world. This shouldn’t be viewed as unprecedented, however. Last year, Netflix revealed its most popular original films of all time, and the results showed viewers flocked to big action movies in large numbers, with comedy movies closely following in popularity. Red Notice is a combination of these genres and their tropes, proving it to be a deft creative decision from Netflix. Even the trailers for Red Notice amassed millions of views, showing just how much the feature has enticed audiences.
It also can’t be ignored that Red Notice is a movie all about its stars: Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds. As fans know, Reynolds found mega-stardom with his role as Deadpool, with Gadot soaring to the heights of stardom herself with Wonder Woman. Johnson is an undeniable movie star force, ever-present on screens and working on a number of exciting projects.
All three have starred in superhero movies (with Johnson in the upcoming Black Adam), proving the genre and its stars have real staying power despite detractors like Ridley Scott. With massive budgets aplenty and a calculated formula to boot, viewers can expect to see a host of other big hits from Netflix in the not-so-distant future.
Red Notice is available to stream on Netflix right now.
Source: Netflix Top 10 - Global