Can you call it a box office result?
Netflix doesn’t report a lot of numbers, but they do tell us which movies are seen by more people.
Over the July 4th holiday, they had a winner. It was not the big ticket movie we expected.
“A Family Affair,” starring Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, and Joey King, easily took the top spot. The light romcom had 1.4 billion sampled views. No one really knows what that means except a lot of people tried it, and liked it.
Kidman handily beat Eddie Murphy’s “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” which only had 646 million samples. This indicates a lot of things including that “Axel F” might not have been a hit in theaters since it reportedly cost a whopping $150 million.
“Axel F” has very middling reviews on Rotten Tomatoes — just 65%. But much worse is its audience rating — 81%. Netflix subscribers had little interest in it, and the ones who saw it didn’t much like it. The story of Axel F may finally be finished.
Still doing well on Netflix after six weeks is Richard Linklater’s “Hit Man.” This is one of the best films of 2024. There could be some awards future there, too. If you’re inside, sitting in front of an air conditioner, “Hit Man” is the best way to “kill” some time!
As for Kidman, she has managed to combine film and TV very deftly. And imagine — in AMC theaters, she gives her “magic” speech before her show film unspools. She’s probably the biggest real deal female actress right now.
