'Extraction' Isn't Netflix's Biggest Movie Ever Anymore

Netflix's metric in terms of tracking viewership has always been a little murky, and their new measurement of hours watched instead of households streamed is shaking things up a bit. The streaming service announced during its Q3 earnings report that they would no longer be based on accounts streaming at least two minutes of the program, but rather the total hours viewed. This new system takes repeat viewings Into account and it has changed the ranking for most popular Netflix originals of all time.

Extraction, an intense action drama starring Chris Hemsworth and written by Joe and Anthony Russo, was long heralded as Netflix's biggest movie ever, but it has been knocked out of the top spot by Sandra Bullock's science fiction nightmare Bird Box. According to these new measurements, Bird Box took the top spot with 282 million, and Extraction came in second with 231 million hours watched. Rounding out the top ten are The Irishman (215 million hours), The Kissing Booth 2 (209 million hours), 6 Underground (205 million hours), Spenser Confidential (197 million hours), Enola Holmes (190 million hours), Army of the Dead (187 million hours), The Old Guard (186 million hours), and Murder Mystery (170 million hours).

Despite being knocked out of the No. 1 spot, Extraction was still a huge hit for Netflix and even earned a sequel. Deadline was the first to report in May 2020 that a sequel is happening. The news came after the media outlet learned from the movie's writer, Joe Russo, that he had closed a deal to write a second script. No other details were revealed but it's likely that Hemsworth would return and Sam Hargrave would be back as director. "The deal is closed for me to write Extraction 2, and we are in the formative stages of what the story can be," Russo shared with Deadline. "We're not committing yet to whether that story goes forward, or backward in time. We left a big loose ending that leaves question marks for the audience."

Extraction follows Hemsworth's character, Tyler Rake, who is "a fearless black market mercenary with nothing left to lose," according to Netflix's synopsis. The story follows him as he is called upon to track down the son of an international crime lord who is imprisoned. Hemsworth recorded a video post on Instagram thanking his fans and followers for the overwhelming support in the first week of the film's first week on Netflix. "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."

0comments