Pictured: Wednesday, Firefly Lane and Troll
Welcome to your weekly rundown of the biggest stories from Netflix’s top 10 hourly figures drop for the week ending December 4th, 2022.
Netflix updates its top 10 stats page weekly with 40 new hourly figures of the top movies and shows of the past 7 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 November 28th to December 4th, 2022, 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. However, in its latest letter to shareholders, Netflix used the CVE metric to talk about The Gray Man, so there’s value in this metric, however imperfect it might be.
1. Wednesday is huge. Like huge huge.
Last week, we asked ourselves if Wednesday could do even better in its second week after an insane start, and the answer was a resounding yes. The series added a huge 60 million CVE in its second week. With 111.5 million CVEs after 12 days, it’s already the biggest Netflix series but will its trajectory continue and dethrone Squid Game?
Wednesday viewership in week 2 vs other Netflix biggest hits
As Wednesday approaches the dreaded third week, it might lose some steam and not reach the level of Squid Game after 28 days. I guesstimate it will finish around 180 million CVEs, but nothing has been normal about this series since it launched, so it might continue to surprise.
2. Troll is a monster.
44.2 million CVE over its first four days. That’s what Troll did following its launch last Thursday. It’s the biggest launch for an international film released on a Thursday, basically tripling the number of Lost Bullet 2 the previous record-holder from a few weeks ago.
Troll viewership vs other Thursday International Netflix Original movie releases
It’s also the biggest launch for any film released on a Thursday, beating Falling for Christmas starring Lindsay Lohan (which still holds surprisingly well this week). Troll should take the n1 spot in the international film ranking as soon as next week. Monster.
3. Firefly Lane is not emitting any light in the darkness of winter
When Netflix announced that Season 2 of Firefly Lane would also be its last, I was a bit surprised since the first season was apparently a success, with 49 million accounts sampling it over its first 28 days per Netflix.
It also did very decent numbers in the US per Nielsen’s numbers. So what happened with season 2? The new season opened with 3.8M CVEs in three days, marking one of my dataset’s worst openings for season 2.
Firefly Lane season 2 viewership vs other Netflix Original Series Returns
The obvious comparison here is with Sweet Magnolias, which targets the same demographic but started better, probably cost less, and was renewed for a third season.
4. Scrooge is not finding its audience (yet)
The animated film Scrooge is not doing its audience so far, clocking in 4.9 million CVEs in its first three days. That’s on the low side of Netflix’s animated films launched in 2022 so far but it did beat out the infamous Marmaduke.
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol viewership vs other Netflix animated launches in 2022
But let’s look at the bright side: it appeared in the ranking, so that’s good considering the latest misfires from Netflix regarding animated films.
With Christmas fast approaching, it might garner attention over the coming weeks. Marmaduke, for instance, did well in the weeks after its launch.
5. The Midnight Club is canceled after one season
It’s been a tough week for Netflix fans of Mike Flanagan’s work.
First, we learned that Mike Flanagan moved its overall deal to Amazon Prime Video, and then, we heard that The Midnight Club was canceled after one season.
Truth be told, both pieces of info were not hard to predict since Mike Flanagan voiced increasing criticism towards Netflix’s stance on physical media and binge release in recent months.
As for The Midnight Club, looking at how the new Netflix US series fared so far was all it took to see it would not be renewed.
Canceled Netflix Originals in 2022
When it comes to CVE, you do not want to be nestled between The Imperfects and Partner Track given both are canceled.
Interestingly, the cutoff number to get renewed seems to float around the 30M CVEs after 28 days, but that’s just one of the metrics used by Netflix to make that kind of decision.
Mike Flanagan still has one limited series to release on Netflix in 2023, and he will then try his hand at Amazon Prime Video.
Netflix Synopsis: "Best friends Tully and Kate support each other through good times and bad with an unbreakable bond that carries them from their teens to their 40s."
