The success of Netflix’s new movie Under Paris has been impressive (Picture: Sofie Gheysens/Netflix)
An unbelievable new thriller on Netflix has soared up the streamer’s rankings to become one of its most-watched films ever after just 11 days on the platform.
Under Paris, the shark attack film praised for its ‘10/10 anxiety inducing horror’ by fans has also been called ‘preposterous’, ‘comically awful’ and ‘the worst film this year’ as more people have had the chance to tune in.
It does boast an outlandish storyline, following a grieving scientist who is forced to face her tragic past so she can save Paris from an international bloodbath after a giant shark appears in the Seine.
The movie now has a pretty terrible audience rating of only 32% on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, although critics have been much more positive, offering a fresh score of more than double at 65% based on 34 reviews.
However, none of the naysaying has managed to halt its ascendancy of the Netflix rankings anyway.
In its first five days of release, from June 5 to 9, Under Paris captured a massive 40,900,000 views, putting it comfortably at the top – and streets ahead – of its nearest rival.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
As a French-language film (original title: Sous la Seine) it’s even more impressive that the movie has broken through internationally, boasting numbers that easily rival that of Jennifer Lopez’s new blockbuster sci-fi Atlas or Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon franchise when they were first released on Netflix.
Now it’s in the second week of release, Under Paris has added another 28.7million views to its total and is still sitting pretty at number one in the top 10 non-English films on Netflix in the week running from June 10 to 16.
The film follows a grieving scientist (Bérénice Bejo), who must try to save Paris after a giant shark appears in the Seine (Picture: Sofie Gheysens/Netflix)
For context, this week’s number two non-English movie is Indian Hindi-language sci-fi Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, which has a fraction of Under Paris’s views, at 5.1m.
And Hitman is still leading the top 10 films in English on its second-week release on Netflix – but has been watched less than half the number of times Under Paris has in the same period, with just 13.7m views.
Given these very healthy numbers for the shark film, which stars Oscar nominee Bérénice Bejo, Yannick Choirat, Nassim Lyes and Léa Léviant, it has also already earned its place on the list of the most watched ever non-English movies on Netflix.
Under Paris has captured tens of millions of views in just 11 days of streaming (Picture: Sofie Gheysens/Netflix)
With 69.9m views, it’s already in the list of the most popular films on Netflix ever (Picture: Sofie Gheysens/Netflix)
Under Paris has debuted at number five on the list on Netflix’s Tudum site with its combined total of 69.6m views, which Netflix calculates by dividing the total hours viewed (120.7m) by its one hour 44-minute runtime.
Troll and the Academy Award-nominated Society of the Snow are in first and second position on the list, with 103m and 98.5m views respectively.
However, the rankings are compiled based on a film’s popularity during its first 91 days on the platform, which both of those movies have surpassed, while Under Paris still has more than two months to go.
So it’s certainly feasible that the gory movie could pretty easily become the most popular ever non-English film on Netflix soon.
Despite mixed reactions to Under Paris, it could become the most popular non-English film ever on Netflix (Picture: Netflix)
Millie Bobby Brown’s Damsel recently broke into the most-watched list for English-language movies on Netflix (Picture: John Wilson / Netflix)
It would have quite far to match the numbers seen on the top 10 most popular English-language films list though, as Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – which is in tenth – boasts 136.3m views.
Millie Bobby Brown’s princess-inspired drama Damsel broke into this list recently at number seven with 138m views, but also couldn’t come close to the performance of the top film ever on Netflix, which is Red Notice.
The 2021 spy thriller starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot, managed 230.9m views in its first 91 days streaming.
In not unrelated news, two sequels are in the works with the original trio of stars, set to be filmed back-to-back.
Under Paris is streaming on Netflix now.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.