The Spanish audiovisual industry is once again flexing its muscles, dominating Netflix's global viewing list. According to the data provided by the platform itself, which publishes every Tuesday, The Snow Society, by J.A. Bayona, and Berlin, a prequel to Money Heist, are at the top of the ranking of the most watched worldwide.
Despite having arrived in its catalog on Thursday, January 4, The Snow Society is the film with the most hours watched worldwide in the first week of 2024, from January 1 to 7. It ranks number one in the non-English-language feature film section, but its numbers are higher than any title on the list of English-language films: 55.8 million hours viewed and 22.9 million viewed.
In addition to being a hit with the public, Bayona's production that follows the survivors of the plane crash in the Andes in 1972 is one of the platform's bets that will guarantee its presence in the awards season. After garnering good reviews this September following its screening at the Venice Film Festival, it is nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and is one of the favorites to get the same nomination at the Oscars. So far, it has made the cut and has been among the 15 finalists in the category of best international film. On Tuesday, January 23, it will be known if she manages to stay among the five final candidates. It rubs shoulders with some of the most celebrated titles of the year: Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest, Aki Kaurismäki's Finnish Fallen Leaves, France's A Fuego Lento; Italy's I, Captain; Iceland's Godland; Denmark's The Promised Land; the MexicanTótem, by Lila Avilés, the German Teachers' Room; the Ukrainian documentary 20 Days in Mariupol and the Japanese Perfect Days, by German director Wim Wenders. It also leads the nominations for the Goya Awards, with 13 options for awards, along with Estibaliz Urresola's debut film, 20,000 species of bees, which has 15.
Prior to its arrival on streaming, The Snow Society was released in Spanish theaters in mid-December 2023. It's not possible to know for sure how many people have seen it because Netflix has vetoed its box office data, but experts estimate that it will exceed €1 million in theatrical grosses. Bayona has already been in charge of several international projects, such as the opening chapters of the series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Poweron Prime Video and JurassicWorld: Fallen Kingdom, with more than 300,1 million dollars (187,<> million euros) in box office worldwide.
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Trailer of the series 'Berlin'
Trailer of the series 'Berlin'.
Berlin, the other big Spanish hit on Netflix, is a spin-off of one of the platform's great historical milestones. Following in the footsteps of Money Heist, but with a tone deliberately closer to romantic comedy, the prequel focuses on the controversial (and very popular with the audience) character played by Pedro Alonso. Last week it already topped the list of the most watched series around the world. It took out both English and other language titles. It surpassed 11 million views and 77 million hours played in its first days with its eight episodes, released all at once. Ricky Gervais: Armageddon, the first English-language title to be classified, fell far short of Vancouver Media's production, with eight million views. This week, Berlin remains the second most-watched series on Netflix, behind only the miniseries Deceptions. The Spanish film has doubled the figures for the week of its premiere and has achieved 22 million views and more than 146 million hours viewed.
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