The Wages of Fear, Testament: The Story of Moses, Heart of the Hunte – Pictures: Netflix
Despite Netflix’s few major releases over the past week, it’s definitely been a busy week in the top 10s with lots of stories to track. Of course, we’ve got to check in on 3 Body Problem as it hits its first full week on the service, plus look at the debuts of The Wages of Fear and Heart of the Hunter.
Every Tuesday, Netflix updates its top 10 stats page with 40 new hourly figures of the top movies and shows of the past seven days. If you want to browse the top 10 hourly data easily, visit our tool, which has just been updated with even more data from the Nielsen top 10s.
Note: In this report of Netflix’s hours viewed from March 25th, 2024, to March 31st, 2024, we’ll use “Complete Viewings Equivalent,” or CVE, expressed in millions. That means we divide the hours viewed announced by Netflix by the runtime of films or series. It allows for better comparisons between movies and series, but it’s not an audience metric. It is the minimum number of viewings if they were all complete from the first second to the last of the film or season.
1. 3 Body Problem bounces back.
There are probably audible sighs of relief from Netflix headquarters as 3 Body Problem found its footing in its second week and went from “polite disappointment” in the charts to “mild success.” After 11 days, it stands at 26.7M CVEs, which should be good enough for a careful renewal for a second season.
The third week should give us another insight into how the series is doing, and it would be better for it to get a measured drop instead of a steep drop.
2. The Wages of Fear is starting off strong.
French action film The Wages of Fear had big shoes to fill, as a new remake of a story already adapted by William Friedkin in Sorcerer and Henri-Georges Clouzot. Artistically, it failed to make an impression, as it is currently one of the lowest-rated new Netflix original films of 2024 on IMDb. Still, subscribers did try it as it launched with 11M views over its first three days and the fourth-best launch for a Netflix French film.
Now, its dismal public reception might probably mean it will fall off the charts quite quickly.
3. Heart of the Hunter is the second Netflix hit from Africa.
Africa is still very much a work in progress for Netflix but the newly released film Heart of the Hunter proved that there’s an audience for African films as the South African film launched with 11M views over its first 3 days, blasting through the previous record of 5.6M CVEs established by The Black Book.
Not mentioned here is “Silverton Siege” which did 12M views but it was over its first 5 days as it was released on a Wednesday. We’ll know in a few weeks time if “Heart of the Hunter” can also claim that crown.
4. Testament: The Story of Moses crosses over to the audience.
Moses is stronger than Beckham but weaker than Johnny Depp. No, that’s not the result of a tournament of an underground videogame brawler with questionable characters, but it’s just another way of saying that Testament: The Story of Moses did a great launch with 13.5M CVEs over its first five days, establishing the fourth best launch for a docuseries released on a Wednesday. It’s a true Easter miracle.
5. Gabby’s Dollhouse is showing signs of weakness.
Here’s one for our resident kids content expert, Emily, as the ninth season of the animated series Gabby’s Dollhouse was released last week, and its first numbers show signs of weakness. The season launched with 2.3M CVEs, quite a steep drop from the launch of season 8.
Gabby’s Dollhouse has proven to be a reliable mainstay over the years, as it has remarkable longevity for a kids’ series show, but we might be nearing the end of the line for Gabby.
6. Dave Attell has reasons to be crossed.
I wanted to highlight a new stand-up comedy special this week as Hot Cross Buns from Dave Attell launched with 1.5M CVEs over its first six days, one of the lowest launches for a comedy special on record.
Now, this can be down to numerous reasons, the first one being that, for instance, I had no idea who Dave Attell was until he showed up in the charts. The second reason is that in some parts of the world, his comedy special is hidden from subscribers as it was not subtitled in all the languages, as Netflix usually do. We’ve talked about this “ghost” catalog, but we can see how it might affect the performance of some shows. It also happened to Simple Man by Steve Trevino, which did even worse than Hot Cross Buns and to most of the new comedy specials of 2024 so far.
7. One Piece versus Avatar: The Last Airbender – Week 6.
It’s been a few weeks since we checked on our favorite fight in the charts: One Piece versus Avatar: The Last Airbender. Remember, Avatar started off better than One Piece but slowly lost ground to its competitor. Six weeks in, it is still Avatar The Last Airbender on top, but not for long, as One Piece held better over time.
That’s all for this week. Please let us know what you think in the comments below.
Netflix Synopsis: "Across continents and decades, five brilliant friends make earth-shattering discoveries as the laws of science unravel and an existential threat emerges."
