Netflix’s ‘Bird Box’ Hits 45 Million Views in First Week, a Record

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 1:10PM EST · Published Dec 29, 8:50AM EST

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Netflix’s ‘Bird Box’ Hits 45 Million Views in First Week, a Record — © Courtesy of Netflix Inc.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) has announced that “Bird Box,” an original production of the streaming company that stars Sandra Bullock, was watched by 45 million accounts in its first week, a record. Given that Netflix has about 140 million subscribers around the world, the figure is particularly impressive.

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Netflix tweeted:

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Netflix has been attacked by investors for putting too much money into new film production rather than simply licensing films from other producers. It has put or will put billions of dollars into these series and movies. Some have been critically acclaimed. Netflix management says that the effort makes it more likely people will take subscriptions and renew them. While the company’s revenue and subscription count continue to surge, the jury is out on whether original productions are a major reason or, alternatively, a waste of money.

At the end of the third quarter, Netflix had 137 million subscribers worldwide. Revenue for the period was $4 billion, up from $3 billion in the same period the year before.

There is no way to calculate exactly how many people will subscribe to Netflix, or renew, because of “Bird Box.” So the Netflix announcement does not mean much.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.