Adam Sandler's Murder Mystery is Netflix's biggest weekend film ever
The Sandler- and Jennifer Aniston-starring comedy has been a big success, Netflix tells us.
- Best New Journalist 2019 Australian IT Journalism Awards
Luke Evans, Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston are in this movie.
This weekend you might have been scrolling through Netflix . You might have looked at Roma or Okja or The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Then you might have faced the inevitable: Netflix is going to get you to watch Adam Sandler's Murder Mystery. You and everyone else.
On Tuesday, Netflix tweeted that Murder Mystery, an Agatha Christie-like caper also starring Jennifer Aniston and directed by Kyle Newacheck for Happy Madison Productions, had broken the record for "biggest opening weekend ever for a Netflix film." In its first three days, over 30 million people watched Sandler and Aniston attempt to figure out who killed a billionaire at a yacht party.
🚨ADAM SANDLER AND JENNIFER ANISTON BREAKING NEWS ALERT🚨
— Netflix Is A Joke (@NetflixIsAJoke) June 18, 2019
30,869,863 accounts watched Murder Mystery in its first 3 days - the biggest opening weekend ever for a Netflix Film. 13,374,914 accounts in the US and Canada, and 17,494,949 more worldwide.
But that's not the biggest mystery at play here. As one Twitter user pointed out, how many of those viewers watched the whole movie?
How many switched off after 15 mins ? 🙋♂️
— GaryLDN (@GaryLDN) June 18, 2019
We don't know the exact answer to that question, but we do know that, according to a Netflix representative, the streamer counts a "view" as "an account that's watched at least 70% of the total run time."
As for what film previously held the "biggest opening weekend" title for one of Netflix's originals, we'll have to keep on guessing.
Murder Mystery is part of Sandler's eight-movie deal with Netflix. The Ridiculous 6 arrived in 2015, followed by The Do-Over, Sandy Wexler, The Week Of and the upcoming crime comedy Uncut Gems. In the meantime, Sandler found critical success starring in Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories, a non-Happy Madison production.
Netflix is normally coy with its viewing figures, but in-house records? We'll tell all! In January, it tweeted Sandra Bullock's Bird Box had the "best first 7 days ever for a Netflix film!" -- viewed in that period by over 45 million Netflix accounts.
It also released numbers on shows like You, Sex Education and Bodyguard, but again, few details on those non-independently verified stats.
Originally published June 18.
Update, June 19: Adds Netflix's background information on view count.