Credit: Wednesday
Is Wednesday the Stranger Things of the fall season? In somewhat of a surprise, Wednesday has managed to break Netflix records as the show racked up a massive 341.2 million hours viewed in the first seven days on the streaming service.
“Being an outcast was never more IN as Wednesday, the supernatural infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years at Nevermore Academy, debuted in the #1 spot with a record-breaking 341.2M hours viewed,” confirmed Netflix in a statement.”
The Addams Family wasn’t much of a popular property when it was first released in 1964. Part of the problem is that it was competing against The Munsters, which beat The Addams Family in television ratings with ease. The series would eventually be canceled after two seasons due to the fact that it just wasn’t a rating draw.
Credit: Wednesday
However, The Addams Family found success in theaters when it came out in 1991. The film was a surprise hit, and it collected a strong $191.5 million worldwide based on a $30 million production budget. The second feature, Addams Family Values, came at a higher price tag – $47 million – and though it wasn’t a flop, it only managed to make $111 million worldwide. Since then, The Addams Family has been referenced in various films and shows numerous times, and there was an attempt by Tim Burton himself to make an animated version back in 2010; however, the project never developed. In fact, Tim Burton was actually offered to direct the first Addams Family film back in 1991, but the filmmaker told CBR that he didn’t particularly have interest in the story until he read Wednesday.
The two attempts at animated features recently turned out to be a flop at the box office. The first feature in 2019 did better than the live-action movies in the 90s, collecting a solid $203.7 million worldwide. This showed that there was still interest in the property itself, though the critical reception towards the film wasn’t great. The sequel, The Addams Family 2, came out in 2021 but only made nearly $120 million worldwide. To be fair, this was at a time when the coronavirus was still strong, but it certainly didn’t help that the critics loathed this film based on the horrendous 28% on rotten tomatoes. Now, with the huge release of Wednesday – which surprisingly didn’t come out on Halloween – it means that the property is still valuable in modern times. The funny thing is that Rob Zombie recently released The Munsters on Netflix, and that film flopped without much buzz and chatter around it. Though it didn’t help that the trailers were simply awful. Of course, the reviews pretty much confirmed it.
Credit: Wednesday
What’s even more impressive about the viewership for Wednesday is that it topped a hugely popular Netflix franchise, Stranger Things, which was pretty much the talk of the town during the summer. “The series now holds the record for the most hours viewed in a week for an English-language TV series on Netflix. Starring Jenna Ortega as Wednesday with an impressive cast of characters and directed and executive produced by Tim Burton, with showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar, the series was #1 in 83 countries – tied with Stranger Things 4.”
The future seems bright with Wednesday as the show continues to top the charts on the streaming service. It also represents a nice return to form for Tim Burton, who struggled to find his footing in the last couple of years. Jenna Ortega’s name has been growing throughout 2022, with the actress making a splash in Scream and X. It would be surprising if season two wasn’t greenlit as there’s more to explore in the world of the Addams Family, but in the world of Hollywood, anything is possible.
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