Pictures: Netflix
Welcome to your weekly rundown of the biggest stories from Netflix’s top 10 hourly figures drop for the week ending April 7th, 2024. This week, we’ll cover the debuts of SCOOP, The Tearsmith, Parasyte: The Grey, Crooks, and Crime Scene Berlin. Plus, we’ll check in with 3 Body Problem and Damsel.
Every Tuesday, Netflix updates its top 10 stats page with 40 new hourly figures for the top movies and shows of the past seven days. To browse the top 10 hourly data easily, visit our tool.
Note: In this report of Netflix’s hours viewed from April 1st, 2024 to April 7th, 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.
1. Scoop
It is a universally acknowledged truth that British Netflix films based on a true story will only ever reach a maximum of 6 M CVEs. That proved to be the case last week, with Scoop reaching 5.8M CVEs over its first three days, just above the 5.2M of Munich—The Edge of War.
Now, I think Netflix was probably hoping for more as this film is at the confluence of two stories: the Royal family and Jeffrey Epstein. Both of these stories have been in the news lately, especially on Netflix just a few months after the end of The Crown. But sometimes, that’s just not enough despite pretty good reviews across the board.
2. The Tearsmith is tearing through the competition.
Now, here’s one new example about how promotion and advertising matter very little (one theory I’ve been harping on about for years) when it comes to viewership on the service as the Italian romance film The Tearsmith bolted with 16.2M CVEs over its first four days, the third best launch for a European film released on a Thursday.
The reason might be simple: The film tells the story of a bad boy meeting a young woman, a story as old as it gets but still effective, apparently.
3. 3 Body Problem has 3 problems, but its renewal shouldn’t be one
After three weeks, I can estimate that the Netflix sci-fi series 3 Body Problem reached the 30M bar after its first 14 days, which should be enough for a careful season 2 renewal.
Total viewership is one thing, but completion rates will probably be what matters in the case of the series. Should it be canceled, it would effectively raise the bar for “safety” for any future series way higher than now, as 30M CVEs over the first 14 days would not be enough to get renewed.
4. Damsel is still going strong.
The most-watched Netflix film of 2024 so far is still going strong, crossing 119M CVEs after its first 28 days. That’s the 7th best launch over the first 28 days of release in my dataset, and Damsel now stands a very good chance to get into the All-time Top 10 for English films in 8 weeks, as it’s on track to take on Extraction, currently number 10.
5. Ripley is flopping, as predicted.
No matter the craft put into a film or a series, there’s something Netflix subs do not like, and that’s black and white, even if it’s beautifully shot and composed. Roma and Man” suffered that when they came out and Showtime series Ripley sold to Netflix after its shooting is another example as it launched with only 2.3M CVEs over its first four days and the worst opening for a limited series released on a Thursday.
It is getting stellar reviews on IMDb, currently standing at 8.1/10, but quality doesn’t matter here.
6. Parasyte: The Grey did a good launch.
Another limited series, Parasyte: The Grey, was released last week. It hails from South Korea and is adapted from an anime. The series did an okay launch with 6.3M CVEs, the same as Your Name.
7. Crooks is not on the straight path.
The new German Netflix series Crooks did not manage to break through last week as it did the worst launch for a new German series, with only 2.8M CVEs after its first four days.
I would not count on a renewal at this point, but for international series, global viewership is less important than stickiness in its home country, so if you’re a fan, keep your fingers crossed that German audiences keep watching.
8. Crime Scene Berlin is dead on arrival.
The Crime Scene docuseries have been a staple of Netflix’s true crime offerings over the years, and the latest title in the series tried to be more international with Crime Scene Berlin. Now, this test might be short-lived as the program did three times less for its first five days than the most recent installment of Crime Scene set in New York City.
9. Files of the Unexplained is shedding a bit more light on one of our theories.
A few weeks ago, we theorized that docuseries about one case in particular were more watched than docuseries in which each episode focused on one specific case. This week, Files of the Unexplained brought more proof of that as it launched with only 4.4M CVEs over its first five days.
We’re going to keep investigating this file.
That’s all for this week. Please let us know what you think in the comments below.