Although David Ayer's BRIGHT hasn't exactly won over a lot of critics, I caught the flick on Netflix last night and had a pretty good time with it. It's not exactly perfect, but I'd more than welcome another trip into the world of humans, orcs, elves, and fairies in this alternate Los Angeles. But just how many people have been watching BRIGHT? Netflix rarely releases that sort of information, but Nielsen announced earlier this year that they would begin measuring Netflix viewership, and according to their estimates, BRIGHT brought in over 11 million U.S. viewers in its first three days of release.
Where does that stand in the grand scheme of Netflix fare? Well, Nielsen says that BRIGHT proved to be less popular than the second season of Stranger Things, but more popular than the second season of The Crown. However, Nielsen's estimates hardly paint a complete picture as they're currently only measuring Netflix usage over TVs, and not on mobile devices or tablets. Not to mention that this estimate is only for U.S. streamers and doesn't account for how many people may have watched the film in a group. For their part, Netflix doesn't seem confident in Nielsen's figures, specifically stating that their estimates for Stranger Things 2, (Nielsen says the first episode brought in 15.8 million viewers) were off by a fairly wide margin. Nielsen adds that 56% of the BRIGHT audience was male while 44% was female. Despite the reviews, Netflix is obviously eager for more BRIGHT as Bloomberg reported last week that a sequel has already been ordered with Will Smith set to return.
The official synopsis for BRIGHT:
Set in an alternate present-day, this action-thriller directed by David Ayer (Suicide Squad, End of Watch, writer of Training Day) follows two cops from very different backgrounds (Ward, a human played by Will Smith, and Jakoby, an orc played by Joel Edgerton) who embark on a routine patrol night that will ultimately alter the future as their world knows it. Battling both their own personal differences as well as an onslaught of enemies, they must work together to protect a thought-to-be-forgotten relic, which in the wrong hands could destroy everything.
BRIGHT is now streaming on Netflix, and you can check out a review from our own JimmyO right here!