Netflix Claims ‘The Old Guard’ Is Already One Of Its Most Popular Movies

Netflix is infamous for not releasing data about how many people watch what on their service unless the numbers are huge. Even then, there’s no way to verify if the data is correct, and no other numbers to compare it to. As such you have to take it with a quarry of salt when they claim, for instance, that The Old Guard — their new action/sorta-sci-fi extravaganza, starring Charlize Theron as an immortal-ish semi-savior of humankind — had ridiculous numbers, as they did over the weekend.

The streaming giant has it that The Old Guard — which of course is based on a comic and which naturally ends with a set-up for a sequel — “is currently on track to reach 72M households in its first 4 weeks!” Big, if true! No, seriously, all we can do is take their word for it that 72 million households is definitely the number that will have pressed play on it. And is that worldwide?

And by the way, how does that compare to other Netflix original movies? Last year, they claimed Murder Mystery, starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, was watched by 30 million households in its first three days alone. How did that one do over its first four weeks? Is Charlize more powerful than Sandler? Oh, and what about the other films mentioned on the list of Top 10 hits in the streamer’s history, which is also filled with data that can’t be cross-checked?

We may never know, because Netflix is holding all the cards here and expecting media sites to simply repeat the data it feeds them, no questions asked. But if these soaring numbers are true, good for it and good for Theron, who has blossomed into one of our most nimble action stars, and someone who’s cool with never having been in a Marvel movie.

(Via The AV Club)