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Netflix rom-coms ruled your binge-watching last summer

To All the Boys I've Loved Before was one of Netflix's most watched films yet.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
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Joan E. Solsman
2 min read
Characters from the movie take a selfie of themselves kissing and making silly faces

To All the Boys I've Loved Before is one of Netflix's most-watched movies ever, the company said Tuesday. 

Netflix may have made a name for itself with edgy dramas, but it's swollen into a giant on our big fat appetite for sappy love stories. 

Netflix' Summer of Love, a programming campaign that lumped a bunch of teen-focused romantic comedy releases during the northern hemisphere's summer, hit the bull's eye, the company said in its third-quarter earnings report on Tuesday. More than 80 million Netflix accounts watched at least one of those films, like To All the Boys I've Loved Before, Netflix said. To put that in context, 80 million accounts is more than half of Netflix's total subscribers worldwide. 

To All the Boys I've Loved Before was a particular standout, as one of the streaming giant's "most viewed original films ever."

In typical Netflix form, the company didn't provide detailed statistics about how many people watched individual titles, nor did it give hard numbers for the size of the audience for To All the Boys. 

Netflix has rankled the traditional movie industry in the past with its unconventional approach to films. Its strategy of releasing its movies online the same day it puts them in theaters, for example, once prompted boycotts from major cinema chains. High-end festivals like Cannes are banning Netflix movies, and Oscar voters have griped that the rules should be changed to elbow Netflix out. But its contrarian bent scored a win with rom-coms, counterprogramming its own light-hearted love stories against a summer with cineplexes overrun with super heroes and dinosaurs. 

Best Netflix series: There's no shortage of original Netflix series to binge. 

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