Netflix doesn’t release viewership numbers all that often, but when the streaming service does, it’s normally for a good reason. In the case of “The Old Guard,” and its viewership totals after just a matter of days, it’s clear that Netflix wants everyone to know the new Charlize Theron action film has become one of the service’s most popular films of all time, with 72 million purported viewers. That’s a number so ridiculously high, not even Theron can fully comprehend it, as she revealed in a new interview with Variety.
“It’s pretty nutty, right?” said Theron. “It’s pretty crazy.”
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Crazy is right. You see, much like the rest of the films that Netflix discusses statistics for, the viewership for “The Old Guard” sounds almost too good to be true. 72 million people “watching” a new in the first week or so since its release is absolutely amazing. However, it’s important to realize that the viewership totals include anyone that watched at least 2 minutes of the film. So, someone could have turned it on for a couple of minutes, gave up and turned it off, and then was counted as a viewer. So, let’s not consider this to be the equivalent of 72 million ticket buyers at the box office.
That being said, relative to other Netflix success stories, “The Old Guard” is doing phenomenally well. Already, the film ranks just outside the Top 5 most popular Netflix launches for an original film of all time, already surpassing the first four weeks of viewership that Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” amassed. And at this pace, it’s likely the film will overtake “Extraction” and become the most popular new original film in Netflix history.
This, of course, leads to the inevitable question about when the streaming service is going to ask for a sequel. Well, according to Theron, discussions haven’t happened yet, but it’s clearly something that will be talked about.
“We’re still pushing this one out,” she said. “Let’s have a little resting period, but just given the fact that all of us really want to do it, I’m sure when it’s the right time, we’ll start the conversation.”
In the meantime, folks can watch “The Old Guard” again, as it is available to stream right now.