For a long time, Netflix had been looking to get into the blockbuster game and start challenging the dominance of the major studios when it came to action-packed and effects-driven movies with an added dose of star power. Things didn’t get off to a great start when David Ayer’s $90 million Bright posted big viewership numbers but quickly faded from memory, although Michael Bay’s splashy $150 million 6 Underground fared much better.
Over the past little while, Netflix have been on an incredibly hot streak of in-house movies, and following the latest data crunching, it’s been revealed that six of the streaming service’s ten most-watched originals ever have all been released since March. Of course, having millions of people confined to their homes more than usual as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic has surely helped, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive.
Enola Holmes dominated the conversation for a long time and racked up 76 million viewers in four weeks, but that still wasn’t enough to beat Charlize Theron’s The Old Guard. The comic book adaptation was predicted to draw in 72 million streams in the same time frame, but Netflix have now confirmed that it was actually 78 million, which makes it the fifth most-watched original movie in the company’s history.
Fans couldn’t get enough of Gina Prince-Blythwood’s stylish actioner, and based on the wildly enthusiastic response from subscribers and the eagerness on the part of the cast, it shouldn’t be too long until another chapter in the story of The Old Guard is officially given the green light. Netflix have been chasing a franchise for a while now, and it looks like they’ve discovered more than a couple over the last few months.