Welcome to your weekly rundown of the biggest stories from Netflix’s top 10 hourly figures drop for the week ending November 5th, 2023. This week, we’ll cover Wingwomen, All the Light We Cannot See, Sly, Selling Sunset, Locked In, Nyad, and Lupin.
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.
Note: In this report of Netflix’s hours viewed from October 29th, 2023 to November 5th, 2023, 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 films 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. Wingwomen flies above the competition
French heist film Wingwomen did a great start last week, the third best one for an international film released on a Wednesday since June 2021 in fact.
Starring Adele Exarchopoulos and Melanie Laurent, the film has a small shot at the all-time Top 10, but it must keep up the pace and keep flying in the coming weeks.
2. Locked In is starting great too.
Our very own Kasey lamented last week that Netflix shadow dropped Locked In on the service, but without any meaningful promotional push, the film managed to nab first place at the English Top 10, with 17.8M CVEs. That’s in the top tier of other launches from English-language European-produced films.
Who needs marketing when you have the most valuable piece of real estate in the streaming area, namely Netflix’s homepage?
Editor’s note: It doesn’t mean that I was wrong!!!
3. Nyad swam and sank.
One film that got a lot of marketing push was the American biopic Nyad with Annette Benning and Jodie Foster, which will be one of Netflix’s awards plays headed in 2024 after a successful run on the festival circuit this autumn.
Alas, with only 4.7M CVEs over its first three days, Nyad effectively drowned and became the worst launch for a new Netflix US film this year.
4. Sly is still punching but not very strong.
There’s been a slew of star documentaries and documentary series this year on Netflix. Think Beckham, Pamela Anderson, Arnold… Sly is only the latest attempt this year by a star to regain control of the narrative of his life, and fans indeed showed up with 4.7M CVEs over its first three days. But it’s not the best launch for a Netflix doc released on a Friday.
5. All the Light We Cannot See keeps the light on.
If we had to judge by the long marketing push for All the Light We Cannot See, Netflix probably had a lot of expectations for this series, an adaptation of a Pulitzer-prized book that even managed to get into some festivals this autumn season. With 9.8M CVEs over its first four days, its launch is good but not great, as it is only the fourth-best launch for an English limited series released on a Thursday this year.
It’s not quite top-tier, but it’s a solid B-tier.
6. Selling Sunset is nearing its sunset.
The seventh season of the reality TV show Selling Sunset was back last week, and it is showing rapid signs of season-to-season decay with only 2.8M CVEs over its first weekend, far below the start of season 5 and 6 (season 4 was released on a Wednesday so comparisons are more difficult).
If you wonder how many more seasons it can go, my answer would be not many. It could be already over, or it could be already renewed, but it’s hard to see how this show will go ten seasons with such a decay rate.
7. Lupin is stealing the crown for the fifth week in a row.
While Wingwomen was the number 1 film last week, Lupin was still the number 1 international series last week for the fifth week in a row. Two French Netflix programs at the top this week that’s new, and it might bode well for future French Netflix projects to be released in 2024.
After 28 days, season 3 of Lupin reached 39.8M CVEs, half of what season 1 managed to get back in 2021. But its release then was quite the unicorn.
Season 3 still has a very slim shot at the all-time international Top 10, and it should be renewed for a fourth season, but I’m guessing that in this case, too, we’re nearing the end of the series, and I would not be surprised if the fourth season was the last.
That’s all for this week; let us know what you think in the comments below.