Netflix may have only recently revealed the list of their top ten most-watched original movies ever, but it already appears as though they’ll be updating the rankings in the very near future. Continuing the streaming giant’s hot streak of original content over the last few months, Charlize Theron’s The Old Guard has been dominating both the viewership charts and the online conversation since it was released last week.
Fans went wild for the comic book adaptation, and just hours after it was made available, the internet was already being bombarded by calls for a sequel, and from the sounds of things, the major players are more than happy to oblige. Having established themselves as one of the industry’s top producers of critically-acclaimed TV shows, it seems Netflix are now making serious inroads into both the prestige drama and action-packed blockbuster markets.
Having spent a long time trying to establish a viable franchise of their own, Netflix could soon be inundated with them following the success of The Old Guard, Chris Hemsworth’s Extraction and Michael Bay’s 6 Underground, not to mention Dwayne Johnson’s Red Notice and the recently-announced The Gray Man, which is set to be directed by the Russo brothers and star Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans in the lead roles.
Circling back to The Old Guard though, and it may have only dropped last Friday, but Netflix have announced that the movie has already become one of their ten most-watched original films ever, and is projected to rack up a massive 72 million streams over the next few weeks.
THE OLD GUARD is breaking records! The Charlize Theron blockbuster is already among the top 10 most popular Netflix films ever — and Gina Prince-Bythewood is the first Black female director on the list.
The film is currently on track to reach 72M households in its first 4 weeks! pic.twitter.com/pM8vOTNa6m
— Netflix Tudum (@NetflixTudum) July 18, 2020
If that 72 million figure turns out to be accurate, that would put The Old Guard in sixth position on the all-time chart, sandwiched in between Adam Sandler’s Murder Mystery and Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman. While the 99 million streams reached by Extraction remains miles out of reach, The Old Guard‘s numbers aren’t exactly a disappointment and ensure that Netflix will no doubt be rushing to bring us a sequel.