Pricey action thriller The Gray Man won't be the biggest hit in Netflix history, but it's definitely not a flop.
The $200 million film, directed by fraternal super-hero mavens Joseph and Anthony Russo and starring Ryan Gosling as a Jason Bourne-esque intelligence agency super killer, captured 96.5 million streaming hours on the measurable portion of Netflix's global platform during its first full week of release, July 25-31.
The movie, which co-stars Ana de Armas and Chris Evans as a pencil-mustached baddie, will more than likely not join the pantheon of Netflix's biggest film debuts -- a short list that includes Red Notice, Don't Look Up and Bird Box.
But The Gray Man will, after next week, appear on Netflix's list top 10 best debuts for English-language film titles. Estimating conservatively, and accounting for a third-week viewership drop of around 50%, The Gray Man could very well overtake Chris Hemsworth action film Extraction on the list at No. 5.
The Gray Man would just need around 48 million viewing hours for the week of August 1-7 to get that done, which seems probable.
Here's a list of the most watched English language films on Netflix after 28 days of release.
Note list of English-language titles also happens to be a ranking of Netflix's most popular movies of any kind -- there are no local-language/international Netflix films with more viewing after 28 days than No. 10 entry Spencer Confidential.
As for The Gray Man, it overcame a lukewarm first three day of release during which it gathered a so-so 85.6 million streaming hours. This wasn't even Netflix's biggest performance for the week of July 18-24 -- that distinction went to Season 4 of Virgin River.
Also notable: The Gray Man finished No. 1 last week in 93 countries across North America, Latin America , Europe, Africa and Asia. Netflix has already commissioned a sequel for the film and seems satisfied enough with it to keep producing English-language blockbusters focused on its Western markets.
Meanwhile, among other Netflix shows, the debut of Uncoupled, a Darren Starr-created dramedy starring Neil Patrick Harris as a gay upwardly mobile Manhattanite undone by the stunning collapse of his 17-year marriage, didn't register a blip in the first three days on Netflix (it debuted on Friday, July 29).
Virgin River S:4 again captured the English-language TV series crown with 87.9 million viewing hours.
With the fourth and final season of mystery series Manifest debuting this fall after NBC cut bait on the show, Seasons 1-3 resurfaced in the English-language TV top 10, capturing a combined 84 million-plus hours of viewing.
And Stranger Things Season 4 is finally at the end of its epic first-28-days accounting window, finishing the with Netflix's best debut ever for an English-language TV show with 1.352 billion streaming hours.
