Pictures: Netflix
Welcome to another deep dive into all the biggest stories from the most recent Netflix top 10s, covering the 40 most-watched movies and series for the past week. This week, we’ll examine the rather disappointing launch of the new Joey King movie Uglies, why Emily in Paris secured its season 5 renewal, and some of the international offerings.
Note: In this report of Netflix’s hours viewed from September 9th, 2024 to September 15th, 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 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. Emily in Paris is back (and renewed!)
Trying to analyze the viewing numbers of seasons released in two batches is tricky on Netflix. Still, we now have so many examples that comparisons are possible between some of them. The latest one was season 4 of Emily in Paris, which came back for its second part last week and netted 33M CVEs total for its first part over the past four weeks and its second part over its first four days. That places the series on par with You S4 and The Witcher S3, two renewed series, just like Emily in Paris last week.
2. The Union is still going strong, but will it be enough for a sequel?
The Halle Berry-Mark Walhberg vehicle The Union is still going strong, having crossed the 100M mark after only 28 days. It is only fair to assume a sequel might be in the works, but when looking at the previous biggest Netflix film launches, it might not be enough.
Still, The Union is currently the 2nd biggest Netflix film of the year, behind Damsel.
3. Uglies does an ugly launch.
How do you fail to open big with an adaptation of a beloved YA film starring Joey King and Chase Stokes, two of the biggest names in the Netflix galaxy? Well, just put McG in charge as the director of “masterpieces” such as The Babysitter and The Rim of the World outdid himself one more time on Netflix’s dime with another critically-panned film (even by audiences with a poor 4.9/10 average on IMDb). With 20.8M CVEs in three days, that’s the 9th launch of 2024 behind the Rebel Moon part. 2. It might be time to let McG sail to new horizons far, far away from Netflix.
4. Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter blurs the lines.
There’s some funny business this week in the weekly Top 10, with the “season 1” of the docuseries Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter appearing in the Films charts and not the TV charts. It’s not the first time this has happened, but Netflix has never provided any context as to why this happens for some titles. Anyways, the “docuseries” did a great launch, with the best launch for any “documentary” released on a Thursday since June 2021.
5. International films rise or fall in the charts this week.
In what can only be described as an all-in situation for Netflix at the end of the third financial quarter of the year, the streamer released 4 different international films last week with some very clear winners and losers. On the winning side, South Korean film Officer Black Belt launched with 8.3M CVEs, the second-best launch of the year for a South Korean film released on a Friday
In India, Sector 36 kept the Haseen Dillruba momentum going with another very good launch for a new Indian Netflix film: 3.6M CVEs over its first three days, the second-best launch of the year for an Indian film released on a Friday.
Now, onto the losers. The Polish film Boxer was knocked out after five days, with only 2.3M CVEs, the worst launch of the year for a Polish film released on a Wednesday.
The same fate was suffered by the Mexican film Technoboys, which only managed to get 1.2M CVEs after its first five days.
6. Breathless might soon take its last breath.
I am not optimistic about the chances of renewal for the Spanish series Breathless, which only scored 12.2M CVEs after its first 14 days. This is a bit on the low side of the spectrum when it comes to brand new Netflix Spanish series. It will all come down to retention rate and budget.
7. Two returning series failed to reach new heights.
Speaking of retention rates, two new seasons of returning series failed to recapture the audience of their first season as the animated series Hot Wheels: Let’s Race! Sputtered with only 2.2M CVEs over its first seven days, far from the 4M reached by season 1 at launch.
Matters are even worse for season 2 of the Turkish series Midnight At The Pera Palace, which lost more than half its audience compared to the launch of season 1.
8. Billionaire Island sunk to the bottom.
More than twelve years after the release of their first series for Netflix, Lilyhammer creators were back with a new project set in Norway called Billionaire Island. Well, let’s just hope that it’s a big local success in Norway, as the only path after its first four days is a straight-up cancellation, with only 1M CVEs.
That’s all for this week, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments below.
Netflix Synopsis: "New passions. New fashions. New Emily? A plucky American marketing whiz spreads her wings in life and love after landing her dream job in Paris."
