Save for ‘The Lorax,’ every movie (‘The Old Guard,’ ‘Fatal Affair,’ etc.) or TV show (‘Cursed,’ ”Warrior Nun,’ etc.) currently in Netflix’s top-ten is a Netflix original.
Save for Illumination’s The Lorax, every movie (The Old Guard, Fatal Affair, etc.) or TV show (Cursed, Warrior Nun, etc.) currently in Netflix
NFLX’s top-ten is a Netflix original.
Since I don’t have any Tenet box office numbers to dissect, I guess I’ll note a certain oddity in today’s “most-watched” movies list on Netflix. Folks seem to enjoy these and it gives me a chance to reminisce about some older, often forgotten blockbusters and bombs from a prior generation. Illumination’s The Lorax is currently ranked number seven this morning, as the Illumination toon came to the service earlier this month and has been hanging around the top ten ever since. But this morning, it is the only title in the top ten that isn’t a Netflix original.
Beyond its “stress-free babysitter” appeal, the 2012 Universal
UVV blockbuster by default the biggest “Hollywood” movie to enter the service in the last two weeks. As a (very general) rule, the biggest “this was a big deal or wanted to be a big deal in theaters” third-party titles tend to rise to the top, which partially explains the recent popularity of the likes of How Do You Know, Patriots Day and The Help. The Lorax, an animated adaptation of the Dr. Suess classic starring Zac Efron, Taylor Swift and Danny De Vito, opened with a then-stunning $70 million Fri-Sun frame from a $17.5 million Friday (a whopping 4x multiplier) in March of 2012.
That was (at the time) the biggest toon debut for anything that wasn’t a Pixar flick or a Shrek sequel. While it wasn’t terribly leggy, it did earn $212 million domestic and $345 million worldwide on a $70 million budget right before Illumination was a brand unto itself.
