Pictures: Netflix
We’re approaching a quarter-way point through 2024, and Netflix has had some big successes so far. Society of the Snow and Fool Me Once are perhaps the two biggest new releases of the year, but we’ve also seen some flops. Using Netflix’s top 10 data (or lack of data, perhaps more to the point), we can see what hasn’t worked for Netflix so far in 2024.
Want to see our list of flops for 2023? You can find all those and the biggest Netflix viewership hits for last year in our comprehensive rundown here.
Now, let’s dig in:
Good Grief (2024)
Good Grief – Picture: Netflix
The second major Netflix movie release of 2024 had a lot going for it. Daniel Levy, best known for his work on the beloved Schitt’s Creek series, would be making his directorial debut with Netflix for a comedy-drama that saw him star alongside Ruth Negga, Himesh Patel, and Celia Imrie.
While the movie did enter the daily top 10s in dozens of regions, it didn’t have much staying power and after eight days following the release, the movie had dropped out of the top 10s entirely. Worse still, the movie didn’t make the global top 10 meaning it got less than 8 million viewing hours in week 1 and less than 6 in week 2.
The movie also got a limited theatrical release ahead of it, dropping on January 5th, likely in hopes of being considered for awards season, but the reality for this one is that it came and went without much fanfare and will be a long-forgotten footnote by the end of the year.
Spaceman (2024)
Picture: Netflix
This one hurts to type, but Spaceman puts a blemish on Adam Sandler’s impeccable record for being able to top the Netflix charts. This had been on our most anticipated list for the year, but sadly, the movie didn’t deliver, at least in terms of viewership. After a subdued start, the movie did rise in viewership in week two before plummeting an astonishing 71% in viewing hours in week 3.
I’m still a little bamboozled regarding the thought process behind some of the decisions, specifically regarding the release window for the film. Not only did Netflix make this compete with Code 8: Part II, another sci-fi movie released just days before this, but they also released it against Dune Part 2, which sucked all the oxygen out of the air.
American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders (Season 1)
Picture: Netflix
Crime documentary series are usually slam dunks for Netflix, but that certainly wasn’t the case for The Octopus Murders when it was released in late February 2024. Frederic noted in our top 10 report for its first week where he referred to it as a “rare documentary misfire,” with the title having one of the lowest docuseries debuts since Netflix started publishing data.
Why didn’t it perform? Could it have been as something as trivial as the name being a bit of a mouthful that doesn’t really hook you? Did it just get crowded out? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Sports Documentaries
Sticking with the documentaries, we move on to sports. We’re going to group a bunch of these, but despite massive investment and a lot of oxygen given to Netflix’s shoulder programming for sports, it appears that it’s not entirely paying off with the titles released so far in 2024.
Break Point’s second season, released in January, followed in the footsteps of its first two parts by failing to register well in the Netflix top 10s. Likewise, Full Swing is nowhere to be found following the season 2 launch.
Six Nations: Full Contact didn’t make it to the Netflix top 10s following its launch despite rugby being popular in a slew of countries around the world. Formula 1: Drive to Survive is still the gem in the crown but notably suffered another significant drop in viewership season over its debut weekend, going from 4.1M views for season 4 to 4.0M for season 5 and dropping even further to 2.9M for season 6.
Are we putting too much emphasis on the performance here? Perhaps, but either way, these are often global sports, and the demand doesn’t seem to match the supply of titles that Netflix is pumping out.
The Netflix Slam doesn’t quite fit in as a flop given that it was dubbed an experiment, but that title failed to hit the global top 10s despite having relatively good performance in some countries like Spain.
Frederic will be covering all this in more detail in the coming weeks.
The Vince Staples Show
Picture: Netflix
It might be a bit premature to include The Vince Staples Show here, given that this looks/looked like it might be an awards contender, but looking purely at performance, it failed to make many waves when it was released in mid-February 2024.
The limited series was featured in the TV top 10s of a handful of countries, including the US, for eight days. However, it notably did not make the global top 10 list for its debut week or the subsequent second week. This isn’t out of the norm; several of Netflix’s other comedy hits have also failed to make a significant impact on the top 10s, though they did at least appear on the list.
In fairness, the odds for the show succeeding in the top 10s were stacked somewhat against it, even more than usual. A shortened episode count does somewhat put it on its back heels, but given that the order of the top 10s is now ranked by views rather than pure viewing hours, we’d have still expected a bit more staying power from the comedy.
Girls5eva (Seasons 1-3)
Picture: Netflix
Seemingly out of nowhere last year, Netflix announced it would be picking up Girls5eva not only as a licensed title but also to avoid cancelation; it’d be taking over the release of season 3 exclusively from Peacock.
Netflix in international territories got the first two seasons without much fanfare in 2023, and although featured in the daily top 10s for two days in Ireland, things already weren’t looking good for the show. Then, in March 2024, Netflix released both seasons 1 and 2 in the US and the newly released third season globally, and… nothing. It didn’t appear in the daily top 10s and also missed the global top 10.
What led Netflix to revive this? Did they get the data wrong or was it a case of connections in high places? We’ll never know.
That’s all we have for now – we’ll be updating you throughout the year with more viewership misfires as and when we get them.