Streaming giant Netflix announced in a tweet on Friday that its new original film, “Bird Box” set a record with more than 45 million accounts watching the film in its first week.
“Took off my blindfold this morning to discover that 45,037,125 Netflix accounts have already watched Bird Box — best first 7 days ever for a Netflix film!”
Netflix has had an increase of viewers, with more than 137 million subscribers as of October. According to Business Insider, that means around 33% of Netflix accounts viewed the film.
The film stars Sandra Bullock as Malorie, a mother trying to protect her children after a supernatural entity forces people to die if they make eye contact with it. The film has had widespread popularity and was even praised by thriller creator Stephen King.
“I was absolutely riveted by BIRD BOX (Netflix),” King tweeted. “Don’t believe the lukewarm reviews, which may in part have been caused by reviewers’ ambivalence to the streaming platform, as opposed to theatrical releases.”
Many have criticized Netflix’s transparency on this information. Business Insider noted that the streaming service has not specified how many of those viewers actually finished the movie.
Netflix, however, is keeping its viewers hooked. The anticipated “choose your own adventure” episode, Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch was released on Friday.