Sandra Bullock’s The Unforgivable easily topped Nielsen’s movie streaming chart in its first full week of play on Netflix.
For the week of Dec. 13-19, the film racked up a hefty 556 million minutes of viewing time, according to Nielsen. The Unforgivable also won a spot on Nielsen’s top 10 list of most watched streaming programs for the week, coming in No. 6.
Nora Fingscheidt directed The Unforgivable, which is based on the 2009 British miniseries about a woman who is released from prison after two decades.
Nielsen’s streaming ratings, which are delayed by roughly a month, cover viewing on TV sets and don’t include content watched on computers or mobile devices. And they apply to the U.S. only.
Netflix, which recently began releasing weekly viewership stats, reports that Unforgivable was viewed a total of 74.4 million hours on a global basis for the same week.
And, as of Jan. 11, the movie had been viewed a total of 215 million hours, making it one of most popular Netflix films of all time. It presently rests at No. 5, ahead of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman (214.7 million hours). Bullock’s 2018 Bird Box (282 million hours) held the No. 1 spot on the Netflix list until recently when it was overtaken by Red Notice (364 million hours) and then Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up (321.5 million hours).
It’s nearly impossible to compare Nielsen numbers to Netflix data. Roughly two-thirds of the streamer’s subscribers are in other countries. Also, Netflix counts in hours viewed, versus minutes.
Elsewhere on the Nielsen chart for the week of Dec. 13-19, Netflix also captured second place with its original animated film Back to the Outback, which rode to 485 million minutes, per Nielsen.
Otherwise, Christmas movies and the classic Home Alone franchise dominated.
Nielsen’s top 10 streaming movies for the week of Dec. 13 to 19 are below (see TV rankings here). Original films are marked with an asterisk. Ratings include Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix and Prime Video.
1. The Unforgivable* (Netflix), 566 million minutes viewed
2. Back to the Outback* (Netflix), 485 million minutes
3. The Shack (Netflix), 398 million
4. Home Alone (Disney), 363 million minutes
5. Elf (Hulu), 340 million
6. A California Christmas (Netflix), 261 million
7. Home Alone 2: Lost in New New York (Disney+), 233 million
8. A Boy Called Christmas (Netflix), 228 million
9. The Santa Claus (Netflix), 215 million
10. The Christmas Chronicles (Netflix), 206 million
Source: Hollywood
