Chris Hemsworth’s success outside of the MCU has, to be fair, hit some bumps along the road. That’s translated into less-than-impressive box-office showings for Men In Black: International, Bad Times at the El Royale, and the Ghostbusters reboot. To be fair, the MIB sequel is the only one of these films with Hemsworth in a lead role, but it still left a mark, one that’s probably been erased by Netflix’s Extraction, which sees him re-team with the Russo Brothers in what’s essentially 2020’s only blockbuster so far. The movie stars Hemsworth as Tyler Rake, an ass-kicking mercenary who throws down within a smorgasbord of ass-kicking while evoking another ass-kicker, Mel Gibson’s Martin Riggs from Lethal Weapon. And the (professed) viewing numbers are looking enormous, although (as always) Netflix is the one making the declarations with a specific metric that doesn’t require viewers to watch an entire movie.
One can’t deny, though, that Netflix’s professed audience numbers for event movies are only growing bigger, and with Extraction landing during quarantine, those numbers are poised to break records. The film might not have been Netflix’s most popular movie this past weekend, but cumulatively speaking, the movie (according to Chris Hemsworth) is set to be Netflix’s largest feature film release ever. Bigger than Bright, Bird Box, and Michael Bay and Ryan Reynolds’ 6 Underground? Yes, and an excited Hemsworth took to Instagram to thank fans while claiming some #1 statuses:
“Hey, what’s up guys, I hope you’re doing well. I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who checked out Extraction — you’ve made it the number one film on the planet right now, and it looks like it’s going to be Netflix’s biggest feature film of all time, which is absolutely mind-blowing. We are blown away by the response and the support.”
So, how massive of an audience will Extraction eventually reap? Well, if it beats previous record-holder 6 Underground, which (reportedly) scored 83 million clicks, it’s a success by any standard. Yet given that Netflix’s adjusted metric counts a “watch” whenever an account streams two minutes or more of a title, all numbers should be viewed with a dash of perspective. With that said, another post on Hemsworth’s Instagram account is claiming that 90 million viewers is the projection.
Watch Hemsworth’s effusive message of gratitude below.