Netflix's The Willoughbys Viewed More than 37 Million Times in First Month

Netflix original films have been a bit all over the place when it comes to success in quality, [...]

By Charlie Ridgely

Netflix original films have been a bit all over the place when it comes to success in quality, with some becoming massive hits with fans or earning Academy Awards, while others go completely unnoticed. However, the streaming giant is clearly excelling in the world of animated movies, as it has found two major wins in its first two tries. Its first animated film, Klaus, was released last November to stellar reviews and strong viewership, eventually earning a nomination for the Best Animated Feature award at the Oscars. This year, The Willoughbys looks to be following a similar path.

On Friday, Netflix announced that The Willoughbys has been viewed 37.6 million times in its first month on the service, proving that the film was a massive hit with families around the world. What makes this number even more impressive is that Netflix only registers one view per account, so it doesn't take into consideration kids who have watched the film multiple times. On the flip side, a user only has to watch the first two minutes of a title for it to count towards Netflix's metrics, so that could skew the data a bit as well.

Netflix informed fans of the milestone with a message from the Netflix Film Twitter account. A quick video of the Willoughby children running around through their house revealed the impressive streaming numbers, along with the message in the tweet itself.

"37.6 million families met THE WILLOUGHBYS over the last 4 weeks," reads the tweet. "Don't miss out on this high-flying adventure and the best-reviewed animated film of the year."

As the tweet says, The Willoughbys is the best-reviewed animated film of 2020. It hasn't had much competition, though, since theaters have been closed due to the pandemic. The Willoughbys currently has a 90% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, but it's closely followed by Pixar's Onward, which carries a score of 88%. That said, Onward's audience is score is much higher than that of The Willoughbys, boasting a 95% compared to the Netflix film's 67%. The other two major animated movies so far this year, Trolls World Tour and Scoob!, have received below average review scores.

The Willoughbys is directed by Kris Pearn, from a screenplay co-written with Mark Stanleigh and based on the book by Lois Lowry. The film stars Will Forte, Alessia Cara, Maya Rudolph, Terry Crews, Sean Cullen, Martin Short, Jane Krakowski, and Ricky Gervais.

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