Netflix has confirmed something that anyone with common sense could tell you — “Breaking Bad” fans came out in droves to watch the sequel film, ‘El Camino,’ during its first week of release. But it’s the actual number of people that watched the film that might surprise you.
According to Netflix, Over 25 million households streamed “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie” through its platform over the first seven days the film was released. Sure, this number isn’t quite a big as previous hits like “Bird Box” (45 million) and “Stranger Things 3” (64 million in four weeks), but for a fairly lowkey sequel to a series that spans five seasons and hasn’t had a new episode in over 6 years, 25 million is a respectable number, to say the least.
READ MORE: ‘El Camino’: Aaron Paul Predicted Jesse Pinkman’s Post-‘Breaking Bad’ Fate Years Ago
Deadline goes a step further and has the Neilsen “ratings” for ‘El Camino,’ which tallies the total number of US viewers the film had in its first three days. Neilsen says that ‘El Camino’ had 8.2 million viewers during that time period, which would have translated to a massive theatrical box office total if those same people plopped down $10 and sat in a theater to watch it. Of course, that’s hypothetical nonsense but does show that Netflix’s support of director Vince Gilligan’s sequel was well worth the expense.
If we want to look at these numbers as a sign of things to come, perhaps Netflix can see that these long-awaited TV series sequels, at least in film form, could be a new source of business. The streamer has built an empire on the average subscriber’s absolute love of revisiting series that have long since been canceled or ended. Perhaps the door is open for more sequels in the vein of ‘El Camino,’ from series such as “Mad Men?”
Either way, it would appear that Gilligan is done with “Breaking Bad” for the time being, and judging by the end of ‘El Camino,’ there’s really no room for a sequel. But hey, it’s clear that people still love guys that cook meth from a camper, so who knows?
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie was watched by 25,734,392 households in its first seven days pic.twitter.com/FDyPlYc8YO
— Netflix (@netflix) October 23, 2019
