Welcome to your weekly rundown of the biggest stories from Netflix’s top 10 hourly figures drop for the week ending October 1st, 2023. This week, we’ll cover Nowhere, Reptile, One Piece, Forbidden Love, Overhaul, Castlevania: Nocturne, and Who Killed Jill Dando?
Every Tuesday, Netflix updates its top 10 stats page with 40 new hourly figures of the top movies and shows of the past seven days. These stats also feed the most-watched titles of all time which we updated last week.
Note: In this report of Netflix’s hours viewed from September 25th, 2023 to October 1st, 2023, 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. Nowhere is the breakout hit coming out of… nowhere.
A pregnant woman is trapped in a container at sea. Sounds familiar? If it is, it’s maybe because you are one of the many Netflix subscribers who watched the Spanish thriller Nowhere over the weekend as the film established a new record as the best launch for any international film released on a Friday with 23.8M CVEs.
In case you were wondering, that’s All-time International Top 10 material as the film, depending on how it will evolve in the next few weeks, should end up with around 60-65 million CVEs and between the 3rd and 6th rank in the International all-time Top 10.
2. Reptile is just getting by for its launch.
Nowhere also got to beat the big US movie release of the week on Netflix’s side, Reptile with Benicio Del Toro and Justin Timberlake. With 17.7M CVEs after its first weekend, Reptile is the 10th best launch for a Netflix US film released in 2023, behind We Have a Ghost, which feels a bit low.
3. Forbidden Love makes its way into the hearts of subscribers.
International films have been on fire the past two weeks, and the Polish drama Forbidden Love is one of those performing titles. Launching with 11.9M CVEs over its first five days, it’s the sixth-best launch for a Netflix European film released on a Wednesday since June 2021.
Reviews are great too, as the film is currently the highest-rated International Netflix film of 2023 on IMDb, so it should have great legs in the coming weeks.
4. Overhaul rushes through the charts with limited speed.
Brazilian action film Overhaul did a good, not great, launch with only 8.5M CVEs over its first five days on the service, making it the 6th best launch for a Latin American film released on a Wednesday.
5. Who killed Jill Dando? is reigning in a somewhat calm week for English TV.
Reaching the #2 spot in the weekly English TV chart should be a cause for celebration for the British docu-series Who Killed Jill Dando?. But it was a very slow week for an English series, and its debut week is nowhere near the most-watched docu-series released on a Tuesday, with only 5.5M CVEs.
Who Killed Jill Dando viewership on Netflix – first 6 days vs other shows released on a Tuesday
6. Castlevania: Nocturne is hiding in the shadows.
Netflix second incursion in the Castlevania lore, the animated series Castlevania: Nocturne, made a somewhat muted launch with only 2.6M CVEs in its first four days, quite a ways behind Sonic Prime or Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight.
7. One Piece is still in the Top 10 this week but will likely miss the all-time top 10
5 weeks after its debut, One Piece is still going quite strong, and we can now compare it to other hit series from Netflix over its first 28 days of release on Netflix. I estimate its total is around 55.6M CVEs, making it the 7th best launch for a new Netflix series released since June 2021. It’s good, but it will also miss the all-time Top 10 by a mile since it’s trailing Queen Charlotte by 13M CVEs, the show to beat if you want to get into the very coveted all-time English TV Top 10.
One Piece vs other biggest Netflix Original hits – First 28 days
That’s all for this week; feel free to let us know what you think in the comments below.