Pictures: Netflix
Welcome along to another top 10 report where we take a look at the biggest stories from the past week in the Netflix top 10s and check in to see how other shows and movies are performing. This week, we’ll be covering KPop Demon Hunters closing in on Red Notice, two movie disappointments in Fixed and Night Always Comes, plus titles like Love is Blind: UK, In The Mud, Young Millionaires, Wednesday season 2, and Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser.
Just a quick note too. We’ve done a bunch of changes to our top 10 search page to make things look a bit nicer, and we’ve also gone back and added views metrics to all titles (where we can), pre-June 2023, which is before Netflix adopted the metric Frederic of Netflix N Chiffres pioneered.
As always, let’s see how this week ranked compared to other weeks stretching back to June 2023:
English Film: 81,700,000 views (Rank 38 of 113 weeks)
Non-English TV: 27,100,000 views (Rank 61 of 113 weeks)
Non-English Film: 12,200,000 views (Rank 113 of 113 weeks)
1. Fixed First Week Bombs
The project was nearly never completed, with multiple stakeholders nearly pulling the plug at multiple stages. Thankfully, Fixed did get made and jumped to Netflix, but how did it open? Not great.
Now sadly, there aren’t many good comps we can do for Fixed as animated films don’t often get released on Wednesdays except for the occasional short (like Robin Robin or Sing: Thriller) and The Soccer Football Movie from three years ago. Therefore, the only comps we can really do are animated films that were released on Fridays. So, with the caveat that Fixed had a lot longer to gain viewership than the others on this list, we can see that Fixed is really struggling.
R-rated animated comedies aren’t really a thing, and given the performance thus far, tragically, it doesn’t look like it’s something Netflix will explore much more of.
Netflix Viewership Data – 1 Week Analysis
Title
Cumulative Views (1 weeks)
Rank
Plankton: The Movie
14,300,000
1
Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie
12,800,000
2
KPop Demon Hunters
9,200,000
3
Spellbound
8,500,000
4
Thelma the Unicorn
7,300,000
5
Ultraman: Rising
4,400,000
6
Fixed
2,700,000
7
2. Night Always Comes
Another movie that struggled in week 1 was Night Always Comes with Vanessa Kirby. Despite the actress front and center throughout the summer with Fantastic 4, this small drama failed to get much traction, which could be down to the fact that the movie really didn’t connect with critics, and that’s translated into just 11.3M views for its opening 3 days. The movie was pitched as a prestige movie and it’s certainly performing that way thus far.
Netflix Viewership Data – 1 Week Analysis
Title
Cumulative Views (1 weeks)
Rank
Leave the World Behind
41,700,000
1
The Union
33,100,000
2
Rebel Ridge
31,200,000
3
Havoc
29,800,000
4
The Killer
27,900,000
5
Straw
25,300,000
6
Don’t Move
20,200,000
7
The Deliverance
14,500,000
8
The Six Triple Eight
14,300,000
9
Pain Hustlers
14,100,000
10
Fair Play
12,600,000
11
Night Always Comes
11,300,000
12
Woman of the Hour
9,900,000
13
NYAD
4,700,000
14
3. KPop Demon Hunters Will Become #1 Next Week
We’ve been pretty obsessed with the numbers of KPop Demon Hunters, and as it approaches the finish line of becoming Netflix’s most-watched movie and removes the much-maligned Red Notice from the top spot, let’s check in with how well it’s doing in week 9.
That means the movie has 20.4 million views still to go to topple Red Notice, sitting at 230.9M views after 91 days. These numbers reflect day 58, so that means we’ve still got 33 days to go. Incredible. The question is not whether it’ll topple Red Notice, but by how much it’ll surpass it, and whether this number will ever be achievable by another movie in the future.
How far will it go? Predictions seem pretty difficult given that this movie is defying any conventional Netflix movie trajectory, BUT, here are the potential projections:
Scenario
Projected Views for Day 91
Latest (Week 9)
210.6M
0% Weekly Decline
329.5M
5% Weekly Decline
313.7M
20% Weekly Decline
276.9M
30% Weekly Decline
259.2M
Tapered Decay
303.2M
4. Wednesday S2 in Week 2
While season 2 debuted almost on par with season 1 in its opening week, it hasn’t maintained the same momentum into week 2, now trailing the first season by 31.3M views.
That said, Wednesday season 2 is expected to get a significant boost in September with the arrival of its next batch of episodes. At that point, direct 1:1 comparisons with season 1 will become tricky, but for now, it’s clear that season 2 won’t be cruising toward the top spot in Netflix’s all-time top 10.
5. Love is Blind: UK Returns…
We’ve seen a trend of reality dating shows in recent months and even years, with their audience growing season after season. That’s not the case with Love is Blind: UK, which debuts with a million views lower than season 1. The future of the show is secure, though, but if it continues to fall away at this pace, it certainly won’t reach the number of seasons its US counterpart has reached.
Netflix Viewership Data – 1 Week Analysis
Title
Cumulative Views (1 weeks)
Rank
Love is Blind: UK – Season 1
3,600,000
1
Love is Blind: UK – Season 2
2,600,000
2
6. In The Mud
The new Argentinian series In The Mud topped the non-English TV charts for the week with 5.6M views, which leads it to have a pretty solid opening when compared to other non-English Thursday debuts but not in the elite tier.
Netflix Viewership Data – 1 Week Analysis
Title
Cumulative Views (1 weeks)
Rank
La Palma
13,100,000
1
1899
10,800,000
2
The Empress – Season 1
8,300,000
3
Yu Yu Hakusho
7,700,000
4
In The Mud
5,600,000
5
The Signal
4,900,000
6
Detective Forst
4,800,000
7
Sleeping Dog
4,400,000
8
House of Ninjas
4,200,000
9
Thursday’s Widows
3,500,000
10
Back to 15 – Season 2
2,000,000
11
Eva Lasting – Season 2
900,000
12
7. Young Millionaires
A new French series dropped last week, and it’s doing OK. While there aren’t too many comparisons given that Netflix France mainly releases its biggest hits on Fridays, it’s so far ahead of Class Act but behind Under A Dark Sun, Blood Coast, and Anthracite. Not an instant candidate for renewal.
Netflix Viewership Data – 1 Week Analysis
Title
Cumulative Views (1 weeks)
Rank
Under a Dark Sun – Season 1
5,800,000
1
Blood Coast – Season 1
5,600,000
2
Anthracite
4,200,000
3
Young Millionaires
3,500,000
4
Class Act
1,400,000
5
8. Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser Is a Docu-Series Win
Not for the first time today, I find it hard to do suitable comps given that docu-series aren’t usually released on Fridays, but that was granted to Fit for TV, which has captured plenty of headlines over the weekend and into this week, which has given it a very high opening.
Netflix Viewership Data – 1 Week Analysis
Title
Cumulative Views (1 weeks)
Rank
Ashley Madison: Sex Lies and Scandal
9,500,000
1
Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser
7,500,000
2
Worst Roommate Ever – Season 2
5,700,000
3
Formula 1: Drive to Survive – Season 7
2,600,000
4
Investigation Alien – Season 1
2,000,000
5
Spy Ops
1,900,000
6
9. A Few Check-Ins…
To round out, I wanted to check in with a few titles such as UNTAMED, which was given a very swift renewal, and while it did debut ahead of Adolescence, it has lost ground on that front in the weeks that followed. That said, it’s still one of the best performing “limited series” over the past year or so, beating Zero Day and American Primeval.
This will probably be the last check-in we’ll ever do for Squid Game (until the US spin-off comes along anyway), and we can see just how the trajectories have played out for all three seasons, with season 3 ultimately losing some viewership on season 2 (I still haven’t seen it all!).
Will Happy Gilmore 2 be getting in the all-time top 10? It’s got to beat Millie Bobby Brown in Damsel to claim that victory, and it’s tracking very, very close, but is beginning to show signs that it’s slowing much faster, so it might be out of reach.
Those are our big top 10 stories for this week – what did we miss? Let us know in the comments.