Netflix's "Bird Box" Gets Millions of Viewers, Inspires Countless Memes
*By Amanda Weston*
Netflix accounts had more than 45 million eyes glued to its newest film, "Bird Box." But that number may not cover the entire reach of the blindfold-horror movie's viewership.
In an unusual move, Netflix ($NFLX) [tweeted Friday](https://twitter.com/NetflixFilm/status/1078735051406204928) the movie set the record for the best first week ever for a Netflix film. (Netflix did not say how the "Bird Box" figure compares to the previous record.) The tweet ran counter to Netflix's usual policy of keeping viewership numbers under wraps.
Julia Alexander, reporter at The Verge, said one factor that may have played into the record-breaking viewership is its release during the holiday season.
"People are home. They're sitting with their families. They're bored or hiding away and so they put on Netflix and 'Bird Box' is sitting at the very top," Alexander told Cheddar Monday. "It's got A-list talent like Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich."
[Alexander noted](https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/30/18161741/bird-box-netflix-45-million-accounts-statistics-views) that 45 million is likely a conservative estimate of viewers, since multiple people can use one account and some may have watched with friends or family. To contribute to the viewership number, an account holder must have also watched at least 70 percent of the film, including credits.
Despite the film's dark storyline, social media has been [flooded with memes](https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/birdboxmemes/) adding funny captions to pictures of the characters in blindfolds.
Alexander explained it's easy to turn Netflix originals into memes because of how the platform is designed. If a user watches on a laptop, he or she can easily screenshot an image and upload it.
"When you have someone like Sandra Bullock looking terrified and she's wearing a blindfold, that can be parlayed to so many different scenarios that you don't even really need to see the movie to understand the context of the joke," Alexander said.
"The joke just kind of carries on without it. So if you have an image or a screenshot from a movie that's going viral and you add in a hashtag that suddenly ends up trending on Twitter, there's a good chance that people who have Netflix are going to tune in to see what the movie's about."
Netflix beat its earnings projections for Q4 — but the stock still plummeted as the streaming pioneer cut back on its forecast for future subscribers. Michael Robinson, the chief technology strategist at Money Map Press, joined Cheddar to discuss the report and what's driving the downward pressure on its shares. "It's the growth is really what's worrying people," he said. "'A' we have slowing economic growth, and 'B' we've got slowing growth for this company, as 'C' we have an increase in competition."
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