Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 4 January 2019
Netflix's 'Bird Box' success gets Hollywood clucking

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE alone. The annual telecast
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — of the Academy Awards
Netflix said 45 million sub- has drawn a U.S. audience
scriber accounts world- of 26 million to 40 million in
wide watched the Sandra recent years. And those to-
Bullock thriller "Bird Box" tals are for a single day, not
during its first seven days a week.
on the service, the biggest Television viewership and
first-week success of any theatrical box-office num-
movie made for the com- bers are typically calcu-
pany's nearly 12-year-old lated by third-party firms,
streaming service. unlike the "Bird Box" figure
Netflix, which typically re- released by Netflix. The Los
fuses to provide viewership Gatos, California, compa-
numbers, made the rare ny has steadfastly refused
disclosure in a recent tweet to divulge its viewership be-
as movie producers, writers, cause it regards the data
actors and investors con- This file image released by Netflix shows Sandra Bullock in a scene from the film, "Bird Box." as a competitive advan-
tinue to size up a company Associated Press tage in deciding what pro-
that has already reshaped grams will attract subscrib-
the way the world watches from Dec. 21 through Dec. to a theater in the U.S. to But people were watching ers. All Netflix will say about
video. 27 — a holiday-season watch "Bird Box," it would the movie on a service for its "Bird Box" number is that
The first-week audience stretch when many people have translated to about which they already had it counted only accounts
means nearly one-third of aren't working and have $400 million in box-office paid and had the luxury of that watched at least 70
Netflix's 137 million subscrib- more free time. Had 45 mil- revenue, based on aver- doing so without leaving percent of the movie. Mul-
ers watched the movie lion people actually gone age ticket prices. their homes. That makes tiple viewers sharing a sin-
watching "Bird Box" more gle account are counted
comparable to watching once.
a television program, Wed- Netflix so far has made its
bush Securities analyst Mi- biggest splash with highly
chael Pachter said. acclaimed TV series such as
By that yardstick, the view- "House of Cards," ''Stranger
ership for "Bird Box" is less Things," and "The Crown."
impressive. For instance, ''Bird Box" is the latest ex-
the Super Bowl typically ample of the company's
attracts 100 million to 110 resolve to become a big-
million viewers in the U.S. ger player in movies, too.q