The SAG-AFTRA strike is still going strong, and in case you’ve somehow missed the memo over the course of these last several weeks, Netflix is part of the problem; indeed, it’s no secret that the entertainment industry’s current streaming model is heinously predatory for actors, and one Tommy Dorfman, of 13 Reasons Why fame, has brought the necessary numbers to the table.
As far as viewership activity goes, the race for Netflix’s most popular film seems to have a definitive winner at the moment — though the same can’t be said for the neck-and-neck nuances of the TV charts — and a brand new Top 10 debutant dares to test the limits of our capacity for wonder.
But don’t worry, Netflix’s top executives still have their yachts
Say what you will about 13 Reasons Why, but there’s no denying that it remains one of Netflix’s most lucrative properties in the streamer’s history. Indeed, it may have been for plenty of wrong reasons, but the teen drama series certainly pulled the streamer a pretty penny.
The same can’t be said for the show’s many stars, one of whom has taken to the soapbox to break down her payout after six months of work over eight episodes of the show’s first season.
Tommy Dorfman, the actress in question who portrayed Ryan Shaver on the show, ended up making just under $30k in that time, and that’s without accounting for the 20% that amounted to her agency and manager fees, the additional payments that came with tax season, and the unpaid promotional work that she also had to do for the show.
It feels like beating a dead horse at this point, but the more examples we have of the realities of this detestable system, the better.
‘Bird Box Barcelona’ sits comfortably atop the Netflix movie rankings
After the original film spawned a very loud, very engaged meme-happy fanbase, it became apparent that Netflix would be capitalizing on the popularity of Bird Box once again at some point. And, with Bird Box Barcelona celebrating its week-and-a-half anniversary of landing on Netflix, the fruits of the Bird Box craze continue to blossom.
Indeed, unfavorable reviews apparently aren’t enough to stop the Spanish horror thriller film from sitting a couple hundred points above its nearest competitor; the Adam Devine-led certified trash fire The Out-Laws. And while They Cloned Tyrone looks to be starting its viewership surge now that Barbenheimer is out of the way, we reckon that Bird Box Barcelona can afford to sit tight for the time being.
As for television, reality TV clashes with good old South Carolina friendship and Korean Succession
Things aren’t quite as definitive on the side of television, however, with current chart-topper Too Hot to Handle being followed closely by Sweet Magnolias, in case you needed a bit more tonal dissonance in your life.
And not far off from Sweet Magnolias is King the Land, a Korean television drama that follows the plight of luxury hotel conglomerate heir Goo Won, who contends with the politics of an inheritance war while developing a peculiar relationship with Cheon Sa-rang, a hotelier who’s rarely seen without a smile.
Less than 40 points separate the top three from one another at the moment, so it looks like this bizarre battle will be raging on.
The Top 10’s lone debutant documents our next step into understanding the universe
The freshest face in Netflix’s Top 10 movies at the moment is Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine, the latest entry in the Unknown documentary collection, and one that hopes to offer a glimpse into the next level of space exploration.
Clocking in at number eight on the charts after dropping on the platform just yesterday, Cosmic Time Machine features interviews with the scientists and engineers involved with the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope; a $10 billion infrared astronomy project sent to the cosmos in 2021, where it continues to capture cutting-edge footage of the great beyond to this day.
In a world full of fascinations with true crime, reality television, and shoddy media in general, it’s not always easy to find positive news on Netflix even within the relatively benign ups and downs of its library, so to see something as intellectually and spiritually engaging as Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine soar on the charts the way it is has is nothing short of heartwarming.