Don't Look Up set a Netflix record with 152 million hours watched in its first week on the streamer, even though it didn't get very good Rotten Tomatoes review score from critics. The end-of-the-world satire with a star-studded cast is a massive hit and could even surpass Bird Box and Red Notice to also be Netflix's most-watched movie in its first 28 days.
Adam McKay's recent movies have all had big casts, but Don't Look Up seems even more packed than most, featuring Academy Award winners and nominees in nearly every major role, including Meryl Streep, who holds the record for most Academy Award nominations for any actor, with 21 nominations and three wins. In addition to Streep's wins, Leonardo DiCaprio has one win from six nominations, Jennifer Lawrence has one win from four nominations, Cate Blanchett has two wins from six nominations, and Mark Rylance has one win from one nomination.
While critics weren't in love with Don't Look Up, giving it a 55 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, the movie got a 74 percent Audience score, which is much more important for viewership, both on streaming and box office. Red Notice is Netflix's last big streaming performer, and it had an even lower 37 percent score from critics and Fresh 67 percent Audience score (92 percent if you count Rotten Tomatoes' "Verified Audience" score, compared to Don't Look Up's 74 percent Verified Audience score).
Since the viewership numbers come from the audience and not critics, the correlation makes a lot of sense, but the superstar cast surely had something to do with it as well. The cast isn't merely packed with talented award winners, but also stars who are known to draw an audience from their names alone like DiCaprio and Lawrence. While there's a strong correlation between Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score and movie performance, the score is likely more of an indicator of popularity than a viewership driver, but a movie's cast can be one of the biggest audience draws. The fact that the cast is attracting viewership to a movie 74 percent of viewers rate positively certainly helps, though.
Of course, there's also the fact that Don't Look Up is highly touted as a satire about the response to a hotly debated issue like climate change, which surely adds fuel to the fire alongside the cast and review score when it comes to word of mouth. While critic reviews get a lot of attention, especially on Rotten Tomatoes, it's clear they're not essential for big streaming numbers or box office performances.
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