Netflix has just published the top 10 viewing figures for the past week. According to the streaming service, “Blond” was watched for around six million hours in total. This is only ninth place in the list of English-language films and 13th place among all films. This is catastrophic for a prestige project like “Blonde” that started with a lot of attention and a preview at one of the most renowned film festivals (in Venice).
Because even in the previous weeks there were already terrible numbers. In the week surrounding its launch on September 28, 2022, “Blond” was viewed for 37.3 million hours. That was only the second place behind the actioner “Lou”, which was already running in the second week of the game, but you could still talk yourself into it. It just takes a little time to get started – but the opposite was the case. In the second week, “Blond” already dropped to 17.4 million hours. The further drop to six million hours in week 3 shows the rapidly declining interest.
“Blonde” is a film that should actually benefit from the Netflix metric. For some time now, it has simply been counted how many minutes have been watched. A long film (“Blonde” is around 2 hours and 45 minutes) has a massive advantage over a shorter title. “Blonde” but brought this no advantage. After three weeks, the film about the life of Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe was watched a total of just 60 million hours. For comparison: The current thriller “Me. am. so. happy.” comes up with that number almost in his second week (at 57 million hours) alone.
Of course, this is also bitter because Netflix saw “Blonde” as a prestige project that should play a major role in the Oscars. That becomes less likely with these numbers behind you. In addition, “Blonde” is also a film that you should definitely see if you are interested in uncomfortable cinema. And that’s not because we even give it 4.5 stars and think Andrew Dominik’s production is outstanding. “Blonde” won’t leave you cold, it doesn’t split for nothing, and is also really hated by many. It’s worth forming your own opinion and not simply ignoring the controversial drama.
Above all Of course, there is a risk that Netflix will take the mixture of sometimes harsh reviews and public disinterest as an opportunity to make such uncomfortable films less or at some point not at all. That would be fatal.