Given that Netflix just announced a sequel and a spinoff a few hours ago, this news is not very surprising. But now it’s official: The Gray Man is the top film on the streaming service.
Globally, Netflix users watched 88.5 million hours of the film last week. The movie was among the top ten films on Netflix in 93 different countries including Austria, Panama, Luxembourg, Egypt, Kenya, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Morocco, and of course the United States. Of those 93 countries, it was the #1 film in 84 different nations.
Given its solid debut — and the fact that the film was only available starting on Friday and not even the entire week — it looks as though The Gray Man stands a very good shot to wind up on Netflix’s “Most Popular Films” list, which is comprised of the movies which had the most hours viewed in their first 28 days on the service. #10 on the list currently is the Mark Wahlberg thriller Spenser Confidential with 197.3 million hours.
As impressive as 88 million hours is, and as much as Netflix is confident enough in the movie to launch a whole franchise of Gray Man projects, it is not the biggest debut for a film ever on the service. Last year, the caper movie Red Notice with Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot debuted with 148 million hours in its first weekend on the service, and wound up at the top of that “Most Popular Films” list with 364 million hours viewed by Netflix subscribers in its first month of release. The Gray Man would have to have incredible word-of-mouth to reach those kinds of numbers.
Here is Netflix’s current Most Popular Films list:
The Most Popular Films on Netflix
Earlier today, Netflix confirmed a sequel is coming starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Joe and Anthony Russo. They are also working on an undisclosed spinoff film set in The Gray Man universe.