Not many Netflix original movies spend more than a consecutive week at the very top of the most-watched list, so Kevin Hart‘s Fatherhood did very well to maintain first position for as long as it did, even though everybody knew it was destined to be toppled from the summit by The Ice Road, for the sole fact that people love watching Liam Neeson in an action thriller.
It may have taken the veteran star less than 24 hours to find his latest mid budget genre film reaching number one, but in terms of cumulative views, the week still belongs to Fatherhood. Subscribers were impressed by Hart’s first major foray into testing the waters as a dramatic lead, and his performance has been singled out as the highlight of an otherwise rote and often formulaic tale.
Having signed a massive four-picture deal with Netflix, we’re guaranteed to be seeing much more of the comedian on our televisions over the coming years, and Mark Wahlberg is rumored to have joined him for Me Time, the first project to come out of the bumper development deal between the streamer and HartBeat Productions.
Semi-biographical miniseries True Story is also in the works, in which Hart plays a character loosely based on himself that goes through many of the same struggles as a jobbing stand-up, with Wesley Snipes signed to play his brother in a rare straight turn for the marital arts expert and VOD regular.
Based on how well Fatherhood has performed on Netflix, audiences are clearly eager to see what Kevin Hart is cooking up next for the platform, although his next couple of projects will take him back to theaters in buddy action comedy The Man from Toronto opposite Woody Harrelson, and Eli Roth’s blockbuster video game adaptation Borderlands.