The Jaw-Dropping Way Red Notice Just Made Netflix History
Netflix flick "Red Notice" is rocketing straight to the top of the streaming charts. The humorous action film stars Dwayne Johnson as John Hartley, a criminal profiler for the FBI. Hartley is called in by Interpol to track down the criminal responsible for stealing one of three elaborately decorated Fabergé eggs on display at a museum in Rome. When he is framed as one of the thieves involved in the heist, Hartley begrudgingly joins forces with notorious art thief Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) to clear his name and find the stolen eggs. The twosome unwittingly enters into a cat-and-mouse game opposite Nolan's biggest rival, known as "The Bishop" (Gal Gadot). The trio all scramble for possession of the three priceless artifacts and soon discover they have far more in common than they originally believe.
"Red Notice" received lukewarm critical notices following its November 12 Netflix debut. At time of writing, it holds a 35% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. This rating directly contrasts with popular opinion (the audience score on RT is 91% favorable), and, as a result, the movie has become quite a sensation for Netflix. In fact, it's such a sensation that it's breaking records left and right. What new benchmark has "Red Notice" set for the streaming giant?
Red Notice had the biggest opening of any Netflix movie ever
"Red Notice" has provided Netflix with its largest opening weekend ever for a film. Per a Tuesday Deadline report, the movie has raked in 148.7 million hours watched since its November 12 launch. This is a towering feat that is thus far unmatched by any other movie on the streaming platform. These streaming numbers further confirm the excited proclamations about the movie's big weekend made by Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds on Twitter just a few days earlier.
The success of "Red Notice" is a boon to the website, which just launched a section that ranks its 10 most-watched offerings. The section is also broken down into four categories: film and television, both English and non-English language offerings. If you take a look at the chart, it trumpets the big win "Red Notice" is having right now. The combined star power of Gal Gadot, Reynolds, and Johnson has likely given the film a big boost. In fact, the success of "Red Notice" may have quite possibly propelled Johnson's "Jumanji: The Next Level" into the platform's Top 10, too; it currently holds 6.76 million hours streamed, per Netflix's Top 10 global movie rankings.
It's also interesting to note that while it was released in a limited capacity to Cinemark theaters on November 5 (per The Wrap), audiences seemingly still chose to consume the movie at home. Per Box Office Mojo, "Red Notice" has grossed just over $70,000 worldwide. Either way, the film's success is definitely a feather in Netflix's cap.