Netflix recently changed the way it measures audience data, moving away from the standard four-week metrics that count two minutes of streaming as a household having viewed a project in favor of cumulative hours watched, and it’s given a brand new insight into what really quantifies as a massive success for the platform.
One of the first casualties of the new system was Chris Hemsworth’s Extraction, which was dislodged as the most-watched in-house movie of all-time, as the bruising actioner’s 231 million total minutes saw it swap places with Sandra Bullock’s supernatural thriller Bird Box, which ascended to the throne with 281 million minutes.
However, records are made to be broken, and by the end of the week Red Notice will have seized the crown. While it took Bird Box 28 days to amass those numbers, Rawson Marshall Thurber’s globetrotting action epic managed to rack up almost 278 million minutes despite only premiering on Netflix twelve days ago.
Dwayne Johnson recently touted that the $200 million blockbuster had reached 150 million subscribers, and given that the film runs for a relatively brisk 118 minutes, his math seems to be on point. Of course, given the caliber of talent involved and the broad, crowd-pleasing appeal of the central conceit, Netflix were surely expecting no other outcome than Red Notice becoming its most popular exclusive feature ever.