Bird Box: just how big is Netflix?
Beyond Today
BBC
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 January 2019
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The post-apocalyptic thriller Bird Box dropped on Netflix just before Christmas with little promotion. But soon it was all over social media, with memes and jokes about its blindfolded cast, and people attempting the “Bird Box challenge” – going about their daily lives with blindfolds on. Netflix tweeted that Bird Box had the best first week ever for a Netflix film, surprising because the network doesn’t usually reveal the number of views it gets. What does Bird Box’s success tell us about the hold that Netflix has over our viewing habits and choices? Radio 1 film critic Ali Plumb explains. Mixed by Nicolas Raufast. Producers: Harriet Noble and Georgia Coan. Editor: John Shilelds.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:04.6 | Hello, I'm Tina Dehealey. |
| 0:09.4 | Welcome to my first Beyond Today of 2019. |
| 0:14.0 | We are the Radio 4 Podcast that asks one big question about one big story every day. |
| 0:28.0 | Now after Netflix dropped Bird Box, their hugely successful post-apocalyptic thriller over Christmas. |
| 0:35.0 | Today we're asking just how big is Netflix. Harriet, Georgia, can we talk about Bird Box please? So I watched it without seeing any of the hype because I decided to have a |
| 0:54.3 | bit of a digital detox over Christmas and New Year, then realize that it has |
| 0:58.4 | become this zeitgeisty sensation that everybody's talking about it. Have you seen it? Yes. Yes. What did you make of it? Hmm. So I watched it and I was just like, oh I just want to know what it's about. I've seen everything on Twitter and all the memes and I'll just |
| 1:14.2 | watch a bit of it and I'll just so I can like join in the conversation about it and then I watched all of it because |
| 1:19.9 | I kind of couldn't stop watching I was gripped but I was also like this is not that good why what is the big deal |
| 1:27.4 | Everyone was talking about it and it's like one of those things where you just have to jump on the bandwagon because it's like if you don't |
| 1:34.4 | everyone's gonna be talking about it you're gonna be left out so you've just got |
| 1:38.0 | to watch it. We do know some things about Netflix like the fact that they have |
| 1:43.2 | nearly 140 million subscribers but what we can't get over is how birdbox a film |
| 1:49.4 | with no promo and some people would say isn't that good has become such a phenomenon since its |
| 1:55.5 | release. So that made us start thinking about just how big Netflix is and how much it |
| 2:01.4 | dominates our lives. The person to speak to about it |
| 2:04.4 | Ali Plum. Tina Deheelin. Radio one and one extras film critic welcome. |
| 2:09.3 | Oh that felt good. Have I missed anyone else out? What Radio 4 now? |
| 2:13.0 | Yeah, sure why not. Yeah. Let's talk about Burbox. |
| 2:16.0 | Yeah, we've got to talk about this film because it's very, very, very, very big, but it's not in cinemas. Now, 45 million views? |
| 2:26.6 | Hang on a minute, Netflix say 45 million views all more in the first seven days. |
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