Netflix releases list of top 10 most-watched original films ever | The Independent

[Steve Timko]

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/netflix-films-originals-list-top-10-most-watched-a9623921.html 

1. Extraction – 99 Million

2. Bird Box – 89 Million

3. Spenser Confidential – 85 Million

4. 6 Underground – 83 Million

5. Murder Mystery – 83 Million

6. The Irishman – 64 Million

7. Triple Frontier – 63 Million

8. The Wrong Missy – 59 Million

9. The Platform – 56 Million

10. The Perfect Date – 55 Million

[Kevin M.]

I’m sorry, but I’m going to need to see an independent review of those supposed numbers. No way 85 million people watched that abysmal Spenser movie... I might believe 85 million people started it, but no way did they all watch it through the credits.

At some point, the internet content distributors will need some sort of third party ratings system, won’t they? For years Facebook has over-inflated its numbers which is in part how it became a juggernaut of stupidity, and Twitter is constantly putting out lists of numbers of accounts that have no resemblance at all to active user numbers. Why should I trust numbers by the people whose business it is to have the biggest numbers?

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Adam Bowie]

This is certainly not a like for like with Nielsen ratings. Netflix only needs a view of at least two minutes to count. Bearing in mind how many shows autostart in their app, or how many viewers have to try a movie they've never heard of, but has just popped up on their home screen, and getting to big numbers, especially if you have stars attached, gets much easier even if they've just reached the point where they think, "This look awful," and exit the movie.

The numbers in The Independent piece come via Bloomberg: 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-15/netflix-most-popular-original-movies

But this piece is probably more useful in showing how their methodology increases numbers: 

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/netflix-changes-its-view-on-views-which-will-boost-its-numbers-by-35-2020-01-21

The important things to note are that traditional broadcast TV ratings are usually based on the average number of people who watched the whole show. You might get a peak audience at the end of a reality show when someone wins or gets voted off, but the final reported numbers will be less than the peak because advertisers want to know the average number of people watching the whole show.

On the other hand, it's worth noting that Netflix only counts streams and not people. So if your entire extended family settled down with you to watch Spenser - as I'm sure yours did Kevin - then that still only counts as one view, even if you were throwing the remote at the TV within 2.01 minutes.

To be honest, Netflix can do what it likes here. If there were advertisers to appease, then independent verification would be more important. But then you look at YouTube and Facebook who do have advertisers, and they still let those companies "mark their own homework," which in the past has led to massive "accidental" overstating of some of their viewing figures. But Netflix only has shareholders, and they're more concerned about overall revenues and subscriber growth than about how many people actually watched Extraction. Whereas Warners or Universal does care about audience numbers because they directly correlate to box office and hence revenues. Netflix can be more like HBO and not enormously care about individual show/movie performances so much, but make sure that there's enough for every subscriber to stay paying.

We only get glimpses of these numbers because Netflix knows they look enormous - they're global don't forget - and that news sites (and us) will lap them up.

Adam

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[David Risner]

Hmmm.  I've only watched 2 & 5. Never heard of 1, 7, 8, 9, & 10. 

I find it hard to believe that "To all the boys I loved before" & "Kissing Booth" aren't on this list. My daughters and all of their friends and my wife and most of her friends have watched them multiple times. 

 

[Steve Timko]

I've started "The Wrong Missy" but haven't finished it yet. Lauren Lapkus is over-the-top and funny as the wrong woman David Spade invited to Hawaii. So far Lapkus is the best thing about the movie. Kind of channeling Jim Carrey.

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