Netflix’s horror film Bird Box, starring Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, Rosa Salazar, Jacki Weaver and Lil Rel Howery, has become a bonafide hit. According to the streaming service, the film has been viewed by over 45 million member accounts within the first week of its Dec. 21 release.
Netflix’s Twitter account bragged about the feat, writing, “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!”
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
It is important to note that Netflix does not report its metrics to any outside sources, and only occasionally gives stats of its programs to the public via in-house methods, which vary.
The film might have scared a lot of Netflix viewers, but the reviews have been mixed overall. The official Rotten Tomatoes consensus is that “Bird Box never quite reaches its intriguing potential, but strong acting and an effectively chilly mood offer intermittently creepy compensation.” The film’s premise, which is admittedly creepy, is that an alien force has landed on Earth, infecting people through their eyes and causing them to hurt themselves. The only way Bullock and her family can stay safe is by trekking through the world with blindfolds.
It’s unfortunate that the film wasn’t able to reach the heights the premise promises; as Shadow and Act’s Aramide A. Tinubu wrote, the film’s “gripping moments” don’t make up for the “jumbled mess” of the film.
“The meat of Bird Box is a jumbled mess with a tangle of characters the audience can’t connect to,” Tinubu wrote. “It also has a strange comedic through-line that knocks the tone of the narrative off balance.” The high points of the film involve Rhodes and Bullock, whose characters develop a friendship in the film.
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