Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and chief content officer Ted Sarandos just finished taking questions in the wake of the company's massive CES 2016 keynote. While answering a question about global movie production after the company's expansion to over 130 new countries, Sarandos shared an interesting piece of information regarding Netflix's existing movie business. Apparently Adam Sandler's low-brow western The Ridiculous Six racked up more views during its first 30 days of availability than any other movie in Netflix's history, a designation that includes both the service's burgeoning original films and its licensed properties. "The Ridiculous Six, by way of example, in the first 30 days on Netflix it's been the most-watched movie in the history of Netflix," said Sarandos. "It's also enjoyed a spot at number one in every territory we operate in, and in many of them it's still number one."
It's an impressive achievement, one that's likely the product of several discrete factors. Adam Sandler's enduring, cross-generational popularity helps; Netflix kicked its promotional machine into high gear for the release, to the point where it was hard to escape ads for the movie no matter your internet haunts; the service's user base is bigger than ever and constantly growing, meaning there are way more people available to watch the movie now than a year ago. Netflix's original films also evade the licensing restrictions that mean licensed movies are available in some territories and not others. No matter the factors, Netflix is obviously pretty excited about The Ridiculous Six's numbers. Nothing eases the sting of terrible reviews like millions of viewers.
Update January 6th 4:50PM ET: This post has been updated to reflect that The Ridiculous Six's record is tied to 30-day viewership, not cumulative viewership. We apologize for the error.
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