Oh, Netflix. How you vex me so! Instead of just giving us viewership numbers that are easy to understand and have no sort of skew, you continue to post tweets on social media touting massive viewership numbers on recent projects without any sort of proof or specificity. And yet, for the folks that have worked on “We Can Be Heroes” and “Bridgerton,” this is a time to celebrate.
As we’ve seen time after time over the past few years, Netflix has once again posted numbers about recent hit projects on the streaming service without any sort of proof. But thanks to these numbers, Robert Rodriguez is able to land a greenlight (per Deadline) for a sequel to his most recent film, “We Can Be Heroes.” This comes after Netflix shared that 44 million households “will have suited up” to watch his film through the first four weeks of release. But wait? Didn’t this film only come out a week ago? How does Netflix know this specific number? Ah, you see, that’s the trick. Netflix can say anything it wants.
In addition to the superhero kids movie, “We Can Be Heroes,” the streaming giant also said that “Bridgerton,” Shonda Rhimes‘ first foray into the world of Netflix, is “projected” to be viewed by 63 million households over its first month of release. Again, we just have to take Netflix’s word for this because that’s all the data that is revealed.
As we’ve said too many times, these numbers are projections based on “views” during the first week or so of release and have no basis in actual complete viewings of a project. Will 44 million households actually watch all of “We Can Be Heroes” in its first four weeks? We’ll never know because Netflix won’t report real numbers. Of course, a “view” isn’t actually a complete viewing, as it’s long been reported that Netflix still counts partial viewing (only several minutes) as a “view.”
Regardless, these are numbers that Netflix is very pleased with and it means that “Bridgerton” is almost assured a Season 2, and Robert Rodriguez will have another chance to work on a children’s superhero film and expand his “We Can Be Heroes” universe even more. So, if you’re fans of either of these projects, it doesn’t matter what is real and what isn’t, as long as Netflix gives the creators more money.