Netflix Says That 'The Old Guard' Was A Record-Breaking Success, And Presents Useless Data To Prove It

Netflix just gave us a peek inside the proverbial chocolate factory by sharing some small amount of data regarding viewership numbers for their original movies. The streaming giant posted a list of their 10 most viewed original movies ever, and Gina Prince-Bythewood‘s “The Old Guard” is among them.

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The list encompasses not this year, but the five years the company has been producing its own films, starting with 2015’s “Beasts of No Nation.” Tweeting via their Netflix Film account, saying “The Charlize Theron blockbuster is already among the top 10 most popular Netflix films ever — and Gina Prince-Bythewood is the first Black female director on the list,” adding that the film is “on track to reach 72M households in its first 4 weeks!”

The top 10 list came shortly after, with the streaming company releasing it to Bloomberg, tracking the number of accounts that hit play in the first four weeks of the film’s debut — though it remains unclear if they still count anyone who watched only 2 minutes of content as a “viewer.”

The list is not far off from what you’d see in a list of highest-grossing movies any other year. The list is clustered with disposable action movies, including the action thriller “Extraction,” starring Chris Hemsworth, topping the list with 99 million viewers, “6 Underground” coming in at number four, Mark Wahlberg‘s action-comedy “Spenser Confidential” at number three, and then Netflix juggernaut Adam Sandler‘s action-comedy “Murder Mystery” rounding up the top 5 — while yet another action thriller, “Tripple Frontier” is at number eight.

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Really, the biggest surprises in the list are the inclusion of “The Irishman” at number 7, TIFF Midnight Madness hit “The Platform” sneaks up on number 10. The other arthouse movies Netflix made headlines with, like “Roma,” are nowhere to be found, just like with regular box office lists. Maybe Netflix is not the cinema-killer, but simply a different alternative that can’t change general audiences’ viewing habits.