Bright: Despite being panned by critics, Will Smith film holds its ground on Netflix
There is good news for Will Smith’s Bright, one of the first big budget Hollywood blockbusters to release on Netflix, with Nielsen giving the film an official audience count of 11 million TV viewers for the first three days of streaming as reported by Deadline.
Will Smith and Joel Edgerton in Bright. Image courtesy: @BrightMovie/Facebook
While Bright had received scathing reviews and a serious drubbing from all possible sources, the viewership statistics shows that the film has not done too bad for itself. Released on 22 December, the film seemed to have found a younger audience with the first three days seeing an average minute crowd of 3.9 million viewers in ages 18 to 34 and 7 million in 18 to 49. According to the same report, 56 per cent of the audience was male.
The ratings giant Nielson noted that because Bright is a full-length movie, its figures is different from other subscription video on demand (SVoD) ratings of shows like The Crown and Stranger Things.
Bright was more of a gamble for both Will Smith and Netflix, mainly attempted to keep pace with the change in the way popular culture is consumed. The streaming giant had acquired the film in March 2016 after a two-week bidding war, and sealed the deal for $90 million.
The film is a buddy cop thriller with fantasy elements thrown in, and also stars Joel Edgerton. The film is written by Max Landis and directed by David Ayer.
