Sandra Bullock’s ‘Bird Box’ Breaks Netflix Viewership Records

We don’t often get a peek at the mysterious numbers that drive Netflix’s viewership, unless the streaming giant has something to crow about, that is.  And they definitely do with the response to Sandra Bullock’s horror, Bird Box, a perfect example of why so much money has been spent by Netflix to acquire movies with big stars.

According to Netflix, Bird Box has been viewed by 45,037,125 different accounts, the “best first 7 days ever for a Netflix film.” That’s damn amazing, although what’s surprising to me is there are that many Netflix accounts in existence at all! I just assumed there were like 50 Netflix accounts and we all just shared one another’s password.

Of course, there’s still a lot we don’t know about how Netflix arrived at these figures. Reviews of the film have been pretty good but not overwhelmingly so (I enjoyed it), and I have to assume some viewers shut it off at some point. How long does someone have to watch the movie for it to count in Netflix’s statistics?

In the end, it doesn’t matter to subscribers like us, and Netflix has more ammunition to counter those who question their acquisition methods.