Happy Gilmore 2 set a Nielsen streaming record in its premiere weekend, putting up the biggest single-week viewing total ever for a film in the company’s Top 10 rankings.
Per the latest Nielsen report, Adam Sandler’s sequel raked in 2.89B minutes viewed during the week of July 21 to 27, with the kicker being that the film didn’t premiere until July 25. It took this Nielsen record from Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which previously held the title with 2.88B minutes viewed in the week after Christmas in 2022.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Happy Gilmore 2 generated 54% of its watch time from adults 35-64, but it also performed quite well with the 18-34 crowd, which put up 26% of its watch time. The original Happy Gilmore also landed at No. 3 on the streaming movies list with 459M minutes viewed.
Nielsen also said that, since 2018 when the company began measuring streaming viewership consistently, Sandler’s films have generated over 61B minutes viewed on Netflix — which the company says is the equivalent of playing over 255M rounds of golf, or completing a kindergarten through high school education nearly 9,000 times.
Netflix actually occupied all four of the top spots on the overall list this week with No. 2 going to Untamed with 2.03B minutes viewed and The Hunting Wives in third with 1.36B. Both of these are pretty interesting feats. Untamed is only six episodes, putting it at a massive disadvantage in terms of putting up such a large viewing time. Meanwhile, The Hunting Wives found an unexpected home on Netflix after originally being set at Starz, and quickly pierced the zeitgeist despite its departure from the streamer’s typical fare.
The animated film Kpop Demon Hunters graced fourth place with a new high of 1.03B minutes viewed. That’s unlikely to be its ultimate peak considering the very rare run this film has had on Netflix since debuting on June 20. Even over the last few weeks, the film has seen a 0% decrease in audience week-over-week. Naturally, its a big hit with the kids, pulling 47% of its audience from the 2-11 age group.
Sullivan’s Crossing also enjoyed a decent audience this interval with 727M minutes viewed, putting it at No. 8. While no stranger to the Top 10, The Big Bang Theory also had an interesting presence at No. 6 overall with 777M minutes viewed, which indicates that its having a bit of a resurgence.
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