For over three decades, Timothy Olyphant has racked up an impressive list of credits on both the big and small screens. He’s best known for his roles in hit series like Justified and The Mandalorian, but he’s appeared in everything from raunchy comedies to action movies, video game adaptations, sitcoms, and everything in between. When an actor has had a career that’s lasted this long, it goes without saying that some projects resonate more than others. Some flew under the radar when they first premiered, such as the thriller A Perfect Getaway, which grossed only $22.9 million worldwide. But now, the film is finding an audience on streaming.
For the week of May 26th-31st, A Perfect Getaway was the No. 5 film on Netflix globally. During that time, it accumulated 6.7 million views and was watched for a total of 10.9 million hours. It beat out the likes of Apex and Cleaner to secure its spot on the chart. This was the first week A Perfect Getaway ranked in Netflix’s top 10.
In contrast, Olyphant’s new animated Netflix TV show, Mating Season, which debuted on the streamer on May 22nd, did not place on the list of the top 10 English-language TV shows this past week.
Timothy Olyphant’s Projects Have Surprising Netflix Results
Streaming has always been a place where overlooked movie can catch on with viewers, but it’s still a little surprising to see A Perfect Getaway so high on the top 10 list. The thriller is not available to stream on Netflix in the United States. American audiences can watch it on platforms like Starz and Philo. Obviously, this means all of those millions of views came from international territories. It would be one thing if A Perfect Getaway was a global blockbuster that had worldwide appeal, but few probably expected to see a thriller from 2009 rise up the streaming charts without any help from domestic viewers. Netflix has tens of millions of subscribers in the U.S., so A Perfect Getaway was missing a sizable portion of that base.
That said, there are a couple of explanations for why A Perfect Getaway is faring so well on streaming. For starters, the fact that this was the film’s first week in the global top 10 suggests it was a new addition to the Netflix library in several countries. New arrivals frequently score high viewership numbers because subscribers are always browsing the home page to see what’s new. Additionally, A Perfect Getaway is the perfect kind of film for streaming; it’s a throwback thriller that earned generally positive reviews (62% on Rotten Tomatoes) and has a plot that’ll keep people engaged throughout. The story follows three couples on vacation in Hawaii, and the trip gets turned upside down when murders start happening. The thought is one of the couples could be the culprits, so there’s a bit of a guessing game to play throughout the run time.
In contrast, it’s a bit surprising to see new arrival Mating Season fail to crack the top 10 on the TV chart. The R-rated animated series earned generally positive reviews of its own (69% on Rotten Tomatoes), with most considering it an amusing raunchy sitcom with just enough heart at its center. Mating Season is from the same creative team behind Big Mouth and Human Resources (the latter of which received numerous accolades), so one might have expected it would have been a big draw out of the gate, but it hasn’t clicked with viewers yet. Depending on how audience word of mouth pans out, perhaps it’ll gain traction over the coming weeks and see an uptick in numbers.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
