Netflix is in the business of spending lots of money on big projects with massive talent associated with them to entice you to pay its ever-rising monthly subscription fee. And then, once they get you, the service will release data that shows that all of these expenses are well worth it, even if the data is impossible to corroborate and sounds a bit suspect. It’s the streaming way!
According to Deadline, Netflix has released its latest set of viewing numbers for some recently-released fall films. And guess what? They’re stupendous! But then again, when’s the last time you heard Netflix reveal that a TV show or film was a huge bomb and a waste of money? Oh yeah, the company never does that. Don’t think about that because “Enola Holmes” and “Project Power” have been massive hits!
Sure, it sounds like I’m being a bit harsh on Netflix, and I am. But it’s difficult to take a company seriously when all the numbers that are released about viewership on films like “Enola Holmes” and “Project Power” are based on statistics that aren’t available to the public (and third party analysts) and feature words like “estimated” and “households” instead of concrete data that we get from box office reports, for example.
With that caveat out of the way, Netflix is touting the numbers for Millie Bobby Brown’s riff on the Sherlock Holmes franchise, “Enola Holmes,” which the company estimates will be watched by 76 million households over the film’s first 28 days. That’s followed by Jamie Foxx’s “Project Power,” superpower action flick, which was viewed by 75 million households in its first 28 days. But again, “viewed” is a relative term and Netflix doesn’t really specify what that means. What we do know is that it’s not a number of people that have actually watched the entire film, instead it’s a number based on accounts that have viewed even just several minutes of the feature. So, for all we know, 99% of the people that watched “Enola Holmes” turned it off after 10 minutes (which would be a shame because it’s actually a lot of fun).
Other big numbers that are being celebrated are for “Cobra Kai,” which saw its first season watched by 50 million households in the first month it was released after the rights were purchased by Netflix from YouTube. And “American Murder: The Family Next Door,” an utterly devastating true-crime doc, has become Netflix’s most popular documentary feature of all time, earning 52 million views in its first 28 days.
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At the end of the day, while these numbers can’t be verified and are obviously cherry-picked, these are the best barometer we’ll get for how well something does. Needless to say, if Netflix flaunts a number, the company is happy with its performance. And if your favorite new show or film isn’t named? Well, it’s probably not looking good.