Netflix claimed over 30 million accounts watched the new film “Murder Mystery” starring Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler.
While Netflix is usually secretive about their numbers, the streaming site’s PR Twitter account posted the news Tuesday night, according to a report published by the New York Post.
“30,869,863 accounts watched Murder Mystery in its first 3 days – the biggest opening weekend ever for a Netflix Film,” the Netflix account tweeted. “13,374,914 accounts in the US and Canada, and 17,494,949 more worldwide.”
Peter Labuza, a film historian, was skeptical of the reported numbers from Netflix, which can’t be tracked through the traditional Nielson ratings system. (RELATED: REVIEW: Netflix’s ‘Murder Mystery’ With Adam Sandler And Jennifer Aniston Is A Great Movie)
“Using the MPAA estimate of a $9 ticket, Netflix is claiming a $120 million domestic opening weekend, theoretically the third biggest opening of the year behind the two Marvel movies,” Labuza tweeted.
“I have a hard time believing that a Sandler film in which only a handful of people I know watched was more popular than Game of Thrones,” he added.
I’m a little skeptical of the numbers as well. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great light-hearted comedy. However, it wasn’t anything spectacular in terms of making me die with laughter.
30 million is a lot of accounts to have watched the movie over just a span of three days. If they’re real numbers, then that’s impressive for Netflix and I hope they continue to do more with Aniston. Maybe even a “Friends” reboot.