Netflix is noting that the Dwayne Johnson\/Gal Gadot\/Ryan Reynolds action comedy Red Notice logged 148.72 million hours in its \u00ab\u00a0opening weekend.\u00a0\u00bb<\/b>
\nNetflix has announced a change in how it releases its streaming data. Beginning with the blockbuster debut of Red Notice, Netflix.com will now offer up a weekly top-ten list, divided by medium (movies or television) and whether the content in question is in English or a different language. It\u2019ll be listed by hours-viewed, which requires just one more math problem compared to the Nielsen\u2019s and will list global viewership rather than just American televisions. As such, just in time to brag about it, Netflix is noting that the Dwayne Johnson\/Gal Gadot\/Ryan Reynolds action comedy Red Notice logged 148.72 million hours for the week of November 8 through November 14. Considering the film dropped just this past Friday, that\u2019s an \u201copening weekend\u201d of 8.923 billion minutes viewed, and almost triple anything else ( Squid Game, Love Hard, Narcos season three, etc.) from last week. Since the list is global for now (thus far, individual countries have top-ten rankings but no viewership stats), we\u2019re going to start seeing titles ruling globally which aren\u2019t currently available in the United States. For example, Venom topped globally among English-language movies in mid-October with 20 million hours, which makes sense as folks were catching up with (or rewatching) the Tom Hardy blockbuster before or after seeing Venom: Let There Be Carnage theatrically. As for Red Notice, which is obviously the big news, it has almost entered the top ten among all Netflix movies. Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston\u2019s Murder Mystery sits at tenth with 169 million hours in its first 28 days. I\u2019m guessing it\u2019ll be in the top ten, if not the top five (Michael Bay and Ryan Reynolds\u2019 6 Underground nabbed 205 million hours in late 2018) by the end of this week. The poorly-reviewed flick, which began life as a Universal theatrical package before they cut bait and Netflix snapped it up, is a prime example of the Netflix advantage. Audiences will watch something on Netflix \u201cfor free\u201d and \u201cat home\u201d which they wouldn\u2019t in theaters. The front page image of the three glamourous movie stars is enough to at least push play, and we don\u2019t know how many households actually finished the 115-minute feature or recommended it their friends. While Dwayne Johnson is absolutely a bankable name in the right package, an original action vehicle with little else to sell except \u201cHey look, it\u2019s The Rock approximating old-school 90\u2019s action films\u201d can get you Skyscraper. That Die Hard meets The Towering Inferno romp, on paper a fine example of \u201crip-off don\u2019t remake,\u201d was a mostly weak imitation of the imitations. It struggled theatrically with $305 million worldwide on a $125 million budget. Both Red Notice and Skyscraper were written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, although I will defend Central Intelligence unto death. I don\u2019t love his We\u2019re the Millers, but how I miss the notion of a subpar star+concept comedy (with Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Emma Roberts and Will Poulter pretending to be a nuclear family to smuggle drugs) earning $270 million worldwide on a $37 million budget. If I\u2019m grouchy when it comes to big Netflix originals which attempt to approximate Hollywood studio programmers, it\u2019s because most of them aren\u2019t very good and arguably trade in willful mediocrity banking that viewers will trade quality for convenience. Red Notice may be \u201cfor the fans,\u201d but Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot got that fan base partially by making better movies. Ditto the at-home successes of Mark Wahlberg\u2019s Spencer Confidential, Adam Sandler\u2019s Murder Mystery and Charlize Theron\u2019s The Old Guard. However, they aren\u2019t slacking when it comes to genuine prestige flicks, like Spike Lee\u2019s Da 5 Bloods (maybe the best Netflix original of all) and Martin Scorsese\u2019s The Irishman (which is current third of all-time among Netflix originals). Jane Campion\u2019s Power of the Dog (likely to end up in the Oscar race) is very good. Ditto Rebecca Hall\u2019s precise directorial debut Passing. In terms of genre flicks, Jeymes Samuel\u2019s all-star western The Harder They Fall is a blast, coming off like a pulpy cross between Silverado, The Quick and the Dead and the Sunset Riders video game. Chris Hemsworth\u2019s Extraction is a rare \u201cmockbuster\u201d that feels like the genuine article, and I\u2019m happy that Zack Snyder found a place where he can make his own mythology (I quite enjoyed Army of the Dead) without conflicting with IP-specific obligations. I just wish their \u201cbiggest\u201d movies weren\u2019t also some of their worst.<\/p>\n