The most-watched Netflix film was recently “Bird Box” with Sandra Bullock. But that’s history, because according to our calculations, “Red Notice” with Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot broke the record in a very short time.
Netflix recently changed its calculations for the (externally communicated) success of a film or series production. Until the very end, what was viewed by as many households as possible was considered successful. The at least two-minute long pure lens was already considered “watched”, which caused a lot of criticism. To meet this Netflix now measures the success of a format by the total number of hours each piece of content was watched.
If you only take a quick look and then turn it off again, you contribute a few minutes to the statistics. If you watch the whole thing, you contribute the full running time and even several times if the film has been watched in full several times.
All internal and externally published rankings, such as the top 10 lists in the streaming app, are based solely on this metric. Of course, this counting method also leads to injustices, because longer films like “The Irishman” and series with a large number of long episodes benefit from it, but at least it seems fairer than the old method.
And according to this new metric The action blockbuster “Red Notice” is now the most-watched Netflix film in history in a very short space of time (and it would probably have been based on the old metric in a timely manner).
On the official Netflix top 10 page “Bird Box” is currently still in first place, but our calculations have shown that “Red Notice” is already in first place.
That’s why “Red Notice” is already up front
It is important to know that the Netflix count only records the first 28 days after the release of a film or series. The list there currently says “Bird Box” with a value of 282 million. That’s how many hours all Netflix customers watched the thriller with Sandra Bullock together. With 277.9 million, “Red Notice” is still just behind – around 4.12 million hours.
However, it is important that the data on the official top 10 page is only available up to and including Sunday 21 November. However, “Red Notice” was watched by more people on Monday, yesterday and Wednesday, as illustrated by the daily top 10 lists on Netflix. Both on Monday and yesterday, “Red Notice” was in first or second place in this top 10 evaluation in 89 (!) Netflix countries.
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In addition, we can see in the Netflix metrics that “Red Notice” was watched a whopping 129.11 million hours in the past week (November 15-21). That’s 15.5 million hours a day on average. And even if we assume that Friday, Saturday and Sunday the numbers are higher than on a Monday or Tuesday and of course the interest wanes a little over time, must have been enough to break the record.
After all, over two days, just 4.12 million more hours must have been spent with Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot. And that’s what happened on Monday, because with fewer hours, “Red Notice” wouldn’t have landed in the top two spots in the top 10 almost everywhere in the world.
So it’s not surprising that Dwayne Johnson is on Instagram already pleased that “Red Notice” continues to shatter Netflix records. An official announcement from Netflix should also be made at the latest with the update of the top 10 list next week.
That’s why the record is so impressive
There is also a reason why Dwayne Johnson uses the word “shattered” (originally: “shatter”): “Red Notice” has only been available on Netflix since November 12th. If we assume that the record was already broken on Monday, So it took just eleven days for “Red Notice” to become the most-watched film on Netflix.
Since the overall top 10 covers the first 28 days, “Red Notice” still has plenty of opportunity to massively expand the record and the lead at the top. So it might be a while before the next film can top that.
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But after all, “Red Notice” is probably the streaming service’s biggest project to date – not only with three superstars in the leading roles, but also with a mega budget, which is still hotly debated in Hollywood. Originally set at 150 to 160 million, according to some scene insiders, it has grown to up to 200 million dollars.
A note at the end of the article. As with all reports on Netflix numbers, the same applies here: The numbers are all provided by Netflix itself and there is no control over whether they are correct. Netflix also wants to respond to this criticism, which is often voiced. From 2022, an external accounting company should have access to the collection of all these figures, monitor them and guarantee the correctness of all communicated figures.
A lot of money does not make good films: The FILMSTARTS review of “Red Notice”
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