The first viewing figures for The 3-Body Problem are here. Depending on how you look at it, the series created by David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the creators of Game of Thrones, was a leader on Netflix or not. It accumulated 81.7 million hours watched, surpassing The gentleman, which was in its third week on the platform. But, if calculated using Netflix’s new measurement (hours watched for the duration of the entire season), it achieved 11 million views of its first season, 700,000 behind Guy Ritchie’s British series, coming in second place.
This figure, at first glance, is not a disaster. The problem of the 3 bodies started with a disadvantage like almost all Netflix releases: it premiered on a Thursday and, as consumption data is from Monday to Sunday, it had less time to accumulate views than other veteran titles such as The gentleman, which It is a surprise for the platform and works particularly well. In its first week, in fact, the action comedy had 81.5 million hours watched and 12.2 million views, a figure not so different from that obtained by Benioff and Weiss’s science fiction series.
However, talking about The 3-Body Problem as if it were just another title in the catalogue, of those that land without us barely being aware of their existence, is not in line with the reality and ambition of the project. To start there are the costs. It may have some visual effects of dubious quality in some episodes (and in the fifth there is an embarrassing scene) but it carried a tag of 20 million dollars per episode.
To this pasture, which places it at the level of House of the Dragon, an indirect cost must be added: the 200 million dollars that Netflix invested in Benioff and Weiss to work exclusively for the streaming service. Taking into account that since 2019 they have only released this series as creators (they were linked as executive producers to The Director, a more independent comedy), these 200 million can be attributed to The Three Body Problem.
Here we have the first doubt. Is this amount of money invested in the creators of the most successful series of the millennium, Game of Thrones, so that it doesn’t even lead in the premiere week? Either Benioff and Weiss don’t have a recognizable name (which, as “Game of Thrones creators,” it can be argued that they do) or the critics who doubted their writing talents during the final season of Game of Thrones changed the perception that was had of them.
Perhaps there are those who think that The Three-Body Problem is an impossible adaptation of a science fiction work by Cixin Liu considered very scientific and convoluted in its explanations, but precisely this description of the project based on the concepts of literary saga, genre and complexity They turned science fiction production into the appropriate formula to capture the interest of their former viewers. The adaptation of the novels by G.R.R. Martin was not known for his accessibility or an approach to instant gratification.
Regarding its success in comparison to other Netflix titles, perhaps it would be convenient to measure it with other recent titles based on well-known intellectual properties that, thanks to having a fandom beforehand, could generate expectation even on a platform like Netflix that launches the promotional machinery often when productions are already successful.
Avatar: The Last Airbender made 153.4 million hours watched (and 21.2 million views) in the same time frame, its first four days. It was based on a successful children’s series. One Piece, the live-action adaptation of the anime series, did 140 million hours in four days (and 18.5 million views).
These were unquestionably successful figures for projects designed as commercial, based on recognizable brands and that required a strong investment on the part of the platform. And, let’s see, there are also a few titles that may not match this description but had much better results. In January, Griselda accumulated 113.8 million hours watched (and 20.6 million views) in its first four days.
The 81.7 million hours watched of The 3-Body Problem and the 11 million views are series that, by themselves, cannot be defined as a failure. But, where other series can use the word-of-mouth resource in their favor to find an audience, the production played in another league: that of instant success, that of getting the global audience to see the first episodes in their first weekend. . In this sense, it cannot be said that it was a successful adventure, especially since it was signed by Benioff and Weiss.
The second week’s data, which is expected to be higher for a matter of time (seven days of consumption data will be accounted for), will help put its performance into perspective. But, for now, the Game of Thrones scriptwriters are understanding what it means to be commercially “average” with their new bet. And being “of the average”, when you put the 200 million of your contract in a single basket, may not be enough.
