Adapting "Bird Box" (Josh Malerman) May Be Netflix's Smartest Move To Date
Netflix isn’t known for releasing viewership data; in fact, they just don’t. That’s changed with Sandra Bullock-starring Bird Box. Netflix tweeted viewership results from Director Susanne Bier’s Bird Box opening streaming week: Over 45 million accounts watched the adaptation of Josh Malerman’s book.
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! pic.twitter.com/uorU3cSzHR
— Netflix Film (@NetflixFilm) December 28, 2018
Bird Box Would Kill At the Box Office
Let’s put Bird Box‘s account views into perspective for a moment.
If just one person counts as a household account, and that one person bought a movie ticket for Bird Box at the average United States per ticket cost of $9.38, Bird Box’s box office haul in seven days would be over $422 million dollars.
Insanity? You bet.
To gain a bit more perspective, Aquaman in 10 days with as many as 4,000 screens has made $188,785,000 domestically, $748,785,000 worldwide.
It’s impossible to say whether Bird Box could have bested Aquaman if it were released wide in theaters, especially since theater capacity is limited, but clearly, there would have been some competition.
The success of Bird Box equates to the best first seven days of a Netflix original film ever.
Where's the "Bird Box" Sequel Josh Malerman?
Surely Netflix executives wish Bird Box author Josh Malerman had written a sequel. He has not; Malerman’s other books deal with other senses. Odds are, though, Netflix can get a Bird Box sequel cooked up anyways.
Netflix Original Movies in 2019
Netflix has been pushing out original movies more and more in the past few years and signing on big talent. Roma is awards bait for 2018, and in 2019, Dan Gilroy’s Velvet Buzzsaw, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, John Malkovich, and Rene Russo, and Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, starring Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino, will hit the streaming platform. There’s also the Ryan Reynolds/Michael Bay film 6 Underground.
If any of these three films were to best Bird Box, it’s Scorsese’s The Irishman. But whether we will know how many accounts tune in to watch it is up to Netflix and whether they release the numbers. Odds are, if any of their 2019 original movies are hits like Bird Box, the numbers will be made public.
If they aren’t, Netflix’s silence will say as much.
For now, Netflix can bask in the success of Bird Box, and we can continue to ponder post-apocalyptic worlds and why the monsters couldn’t go inside. Reading Josh Malerman’s book may help.
