Today CES 2016 hosted a Netflix keynote featuring Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and chief content officer Ted Sarandos. And while the Netflix keynote was loaded with new announcements (including an amazing trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s Original Series The Get Down), the biggest surprise came during the Q&A, when Sarandos told the CES audience that Adam Sandler’s comedy Western, The Ridiculous Six, is Netflix’s #1 most-watched movie ever. EVER.
Ever.
The Ridiculous Six
Netflix's #1 Hit
Well of course THE RIDICULOUS SIX is Netflix's most-streamed movie ever because Netflix hardly has any movies worth streaming. Good grief.
— Stephen Bowie (@smilingcobra) January 6, 2016"The Ridiculous Six, by way of example, in the first 30 days on Netflix it's been the most-watched movie in the history of Netflix," Sarandos told CES audiences. "It's also enjoyed a spot at #1 in every territory we operate in, and in many of them it's still #1."
Just found out The Ridiculous Six is the most watched movie on Netflix ever. Guess it's finally time to give up on humanity.
— Dave Fisher (@ThatDaveFisher) January 6, 2016As both a contributor and consumer in the immense online movie writing vortex, the incredible success of The Ridiculous Six comes as a shock. Sure, movie reviews have never correlated closely with box office returns or popularity, but in a media environment that has shared nothing but eye-rolls and scorn for Adam Sandler’s Netflix deal, the chasm between movie viewers and movie writers (and the online media culture generally) has rarely felt so unbridgeable.
Adam Sandler has long been a box office draw, but the dominant media narrative in recent years has portrayed Sandler as a comedian past his prime. Box office returns on movies like Blended and That’s My Boy seemed to bolster the story, but requires turning a blind eye to “anomalies” like Grown Ups 2. Just now my jaw dropped to learn that Just Go With It —the single laziest movie I have ever seen—made over $100 million.
Everyone’s laughing at The Ridiculous Six Netflix claim but ignoring that I have watched The Ridiculous Six ten thousand times already
— Larry Fitzmaurice (@lfitzmaurice) January 6, 2016Movie critics don’t need to be populists, but it is helpful to have periodic reminders of just how far the distance can be between mainstream sentiments and online media consensus.
The success of Adam Sandler and The Ridiculous Six is great for Netflix. But if Adam Sandler’s I’m-too-sedated-to-try expression reminds you of time’s steamroller come to crush your life force—“irrelevancy before death” spray-painted on the side by hands younger and (you’d like to believe) less capable than yours—then the popularity of The Ridiculous Six may just be your best excuse to get drunk this week.
