“extraction” is the biggest Netflix original movie…at least in terms of opening months

By: Keaton Marcus

Netflix just revealed their top ten biggest viewership ratings for original movie opening months. One thing you can take away from these numbers is that there’s no stopping this giant.

Leading the group was the Chris Hemsworth-starring action flick Extraction, which burst onto the app earlier this year with such huge numbers that plans for a sequel or prequel with Hemsworth set to return are in order. The movie pulled in a hulking 99 million views in its first four weeks of release, making it Netflix’s biggest original movie in terms of opening months, according to Bloomberg data. The film received a solid review from us, and was a decent hit with critics and audiences alike. With the star power from MCU alum Hemsworth and being a critical success overall, it was destined to be a great success.

Next up was a total phenomenon in the year 2018, the horror thriller Bird Box, which starred Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich. The movie polarized critics, and it was a huge debate on whether it was worth the big numbers it was getting. There was even some controversy that Netflix used bots to propel the viewership up. In its first month of release, it garnered 89 million views from users, some watchers hated it, some loved it, others in the middle. It was all over the place, but now there’s a sequel being planned with Bullock coming to star once again.

Thirdly, 2020’s action comedy Spenser Confidential starring Mark Wahlberg also had a place in the top ten. It flew in and took a massive 85 million views in four weeks, and while no sequel has been green-lit yet, considering the film’s success, we wouldn’t be surprised. It certainly wasn’t helped by the reviews, scoring a mere 37% with Rotten Tomatoes. But streamers are starting to take a liking to Netflix’s action movies, especially when they star someone likable, in this case, Wahlberg.

Fourth place had another poorly-reviewed action movie in the slot. This time it was Michael Bay’s 6 Underground, which hit the service late last year, and completely blew it up. With Ryan Reynolds as the leading man, the thriller took in 83 million views in the first month, and proved once again that these types of films don’t need acclaim to be popular. Especially since it currently holds a 36% on RT.

Rounding out the top five was a comedy called Murder Mystery, which stars Adam Sandler and Jennifer Anniston. The film received mixed-to-negative reviews, but was still a solid hit, racking up 73 million views in four weeks. It was a mediocre movie with sporadic laughs, basically every Sandler film these days, though it still wasn’t awful. Plans to give the movie a sequel are now in development in Netflix.

The rest of the top ten kicked off with Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, which was recently nominated for 11 Academy Awards. It received rave reviews from critics, and despite being a 210-minute movie, it still brought a solid 64 million views in its first month of release. The movie had a studded cast, with the three leads uniting Joe Pesci, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. It was an epic gangster movie that was not only a huge technical achievement, but it also had award-worthy performances and sharp direction. Otherwise, Triple Frontier pulled in 63 million, The Wrong Missy had 59 million, The Platform with 56 million, and The Perfect Date with 48 million.

It will be interesting to see how Netflix’s new Charlize Theron action movie The Old Guard will perform at the end of its month. It held the number one slot on Netflix for six days, and it currently holds number two behind Fatal Affair.