One of the by-products of Netflix’s “be everything to everyone” approach to original films and series is stumbling onto trends that no one expected. And this summer, one of those trends is how the streaming service’s subscribers sure do love a good rom-com. With summer coming to an end, the notoriously private Netflix has released some data that shows that the company struck big with their “summer of love” series of films.
According to Variety, Netflix says that 80 million people from around the world watched at least one of its summer rom-coms over the last few months. Those films include “Set It Up,” “The Kissing Booth,” “Like Father,” “Sierra Burgess Is a Loser” and the massively popular “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.” The streaming giant confirmed that it is already deep into development of the next set of original rom-coms to attempt to replicate this unforeseen success.
Special commendation went to the aforementioned “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” which Netflix touts as one of the “most viewed original films ever with strong repeat viewing.”
To further illustrate the streaming company’s rom-com popularity, Netflix released some anecdotal Instagram evidence that shows that not only are people watching the films, but the subscribers are following up on social media and raising the star power of the cast.
Again, when you look at “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” which stars Lana Condor and instant heartthrob Noah Centineo, the Instagram data doesn’t lie. Condor’s number of followers on the social media platform sky-rocketed from 0.1 million to a whopping 5.5 million after the premiere of the film. Not to be outdone, Centineo started with a larger base of 0.8 million followers, but saw his count jump to an incredible 13.4 million after the film hit the streaming service.
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“The Kissing Booth” stars Joey King and Jacob Elordi saw similar increases, while the cast of “Stranger Things” is probably the most affected by that series’ ridiculous success. “Stranger Things” star Millie Bobbie Brown saw her Instagram jump from 0 to 17.6 million in just over two years.
While Netflix still won’t release concrete viewer data for its originals, these numbers definitely paint a picture of success for the streaming service and its newfound love of rom-coms.