Pictured: Bridgerton, Atlas, Tires / Netflix
It’s time for another rundown of the Netflix top 10 data from the past week. This week, we’re zeroing in on Atlas, the new blockbuster movie starring Jennifer Lopez, checking in with Bridgerton season 3 – part 1, and checking out the debuts of Tires, In Good Hands 2, and the insufferable Buying London.
Note: In this report of Netflix’s hours viewed from May 20th, 2024, to May 26th, 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.
Let’s dive into the big headlines for the week, which you can navigate using the links below!
1. Atlas is no The Mother
It would be fair to compare The Mother to Atlas as they are both Netflix films starring Jennifer Lopez and released during the month of May.
However, that comparison so far is not kind to Atlas, which opened with 28.2M CVEs after its first three days, quite a few steps under the launch of The Mother, which opened with 42.9M CVEs last year.
Still, Atlas is the third-best launch of 2024 so far for a Netflix film, behind Damsel and Lift, so it might be good enough by 2024 standards, but I’m guessing Netflix is not particularly thrilled by those numbers.
2. In Good Hands is still in good hands
Turkish drama In Good Hands was a runaway international hit when it was released, subsequently getting a sequel that opened last week.
With 6.3M CVEs, that’s the second-best launch for a Netflix film from the Middle East released on a Thursday.
3. Bridgerton is getting dizzy on all its success.
S3A of Bridgerton had a killer launch last week, and we delved into that at length last week. However, one of the consequences of a split-season release for such a popular show is that second weeks tend to drop. For Bridgerton, that drop is quite huge, with the third season losing 44% of its hours viewed, the worst drop for any split-season release series in my dataset.
This graph is quite logical, as it’s ordered from the biggest launch on the left to the lowest on the right. It stands to reason that the higher your launch is, the bigger the drop in week two is. If this trend continues, S3A of Bridgerton could lose another 55-60% next week.
4. Tires is quite flat.
The new US comedy Tires has been on a very different path than other Netflix series. Netflix bought it after it was shot and renewed it even before the release of the season. Now, its launch is very low, with only 3.8M CVEs, but it hits just the right spot that Survival of the Thickest and Unstable hit and got renewed despite the weakness of those numbers.
Now, here’s a crazy thought: Is Netflix finally starting to let its comedies grow season after season instead of canceling them purely on their viewership numbers? Probably not, as lots of other factors come into play, but it’s still fun to keep in mind.
5. Jurassic World: Chaos Theory causes no chaos in the charts.
No chaos, but quite a solid launch with 3.8M CVEs, on par with the launch of S4 of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, for which Chaos Theory serves as a sequel. So, the fans are here and ready to explore that animated series.
6. Buying London is not only one of the worst reviewed Netflix reality TV show.
For the launch of Buying London, Netflix UK decided to lean into the very bad reviews, especially from The Guardian, as part of its Twitter campaign, putting front and center the 0-star rating the series got.
Maybe it did something, but maybe it did not, as the series launched with a weak 1.9M CVEs after five days, the worst launch of any Selling/Buying whatever city series I have in my dataset.
That’s all for this week. Please let us know what you think in the comments below.