New Netflix Movie Officially Breaks Streamer's Weekly Viewing Record

Don't Look Up may be failing to win over critics, but that hasn't stopped the star-studded film from soaring past Netflix's weekly viewing record. The new film, which premiered on the streamer on Friday, Dec. 24 and features the talents of Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, among others, has become a record-breaker after it attracted the most viewing hours for a movie in a single week in Netflix's history.

While Netflix refrains from releasing day-to-day data, the streamer confirmed to Deadline that the Adam McKay-directed film has officially broken Netflix's weekly viewing record. The movie, which centers around two relatively low-level astronomers who are the first to discover that a comet is on a collision course with Earth, reached 152.29 million hours watched globally for the week of Monday, Dec. 27 through Sunday, Jan. 2, a number that cemented a new weekly viewing record. Less than a month into its Netflix lifespan, the film is also already the third most-watched film (in its first 28 days) of all time, falling only behind Bird Box and Red Notice.

The film's success doesn't come as much of a surprise given the star-studded cast that likely helped draw in a massive number of viewers. Don't Look Up stars DiCaprio and Lawrence in the lead roles Dr. Randall Mindy, a professor at Michigan State University, and Kate Dibiasky, a graduate student who discovers the comet while working with the Subaru Telescope. Rob Morgan stars as Dr. Teddy Oglethrope of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office. Meanwhile, Meryl Streep appears in the film as President Janie Orlean, who is apathetic towards the news of the impending global catastrophe, with Jonah Hill starring as Streep's onscreen son and chief of staff, Jason Orlean. The cast also includes Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande and more.

After beginning with a limited theatrical run in December, Don't Look Up made its debut on the Netflix streaming platform on Dec. 24, immediately launching itself to the top of the streaming charts. The movie became the No. 1 title overall as well as the No. 1 movie and has remained in those two spots for more than a week now across Netflix's various global markets. FlixPatrol data shows that the movie still ranks as the No. 1 movie on Netflix globally.

Despite its apparent success – Don't Look Up has also already won a number of awards – the movie has failed to win much praise from critics. The film currently has just a 54% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics consensus reads, "Don't Look Up aims too high for its scattershot barbs to consistently land, but Adam McKay's star-studded satire hits its target of collective denial square on." The movie is available for streaming on Netflix alongside a number of other popular titles.

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