The Big Picture
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Don’t Breathe 2
attracted over 3 million views on Netflix in just a few days, despite mixed reviews. - The success of the sequel emphasizes the audience for follow-up films, even if they don’t match the original’s impact.
- The movie features a strong production team including Fede Álvarez, Rodo Sayagues, and Sam Raimi.
Even though some people are not great fans of sequels, there’s certainly an audience for them, as several titles have proven over and over again. This week, a sequel has become a standout in the Netflix chart, which underscores that it doesn’t take a huge title to draw massive viewing numbers. Stephen Lang (Avatar franchise) horror-thriller Don’t Breathe 2 managed to land among the top 10 most-watched titles on Netflix this week despite its 43% Rotten Tomatoes score.
In the movie, Lang reprises his role of “the Blind Man,” a U.S. Navy SEAL veteran who lost his sight after getting hit with shrapnel. The story centers around Norman Nordstrom (Lang) doing his best to live a quiet life, but he’s forced into action pretty quickly when his home receives some unwanted visitors. The more the criminals talk, the more it seems like the home invasion isn’t random, and they also seem to know a lot about Nordstrom’s past. Are they seeking revenge? Do they want something he might have? Netflix subscribers were eager to find out.
As the title suggests, Don’t Breathe 2 is the sequel to the highly successful Don’t Breathe, the 2016 movie that was made with a minuscule budget of less than $10 million dollars and managed to rake in over $150 million at the box office. The sequel didn’t quite make the splash that the original title did, but it still raked in a good portion of the audience. The $53 million gross in theaters suggests that audiences were happy to wait until the movie debuted on streaming platforms to check it out, and its performance on Netflix underscores that.
Don’t Breathe 2 Accumulated Over 3 Million Views In Just a Few Days
Even though Don’t Breathe 2 is a 2021 movie, it reached #8 among the most-watched titles on Netflix as soon as it debuted on the platform and managed to attract 3.2 million views from subscribers. Of course, a lot of those streams might hail from fans giving it a rewatch, but it still stresses the relevance of the title to its fanbase. Not by chance, a third movie is already in production.
Aside from Lang, the Don’t Breathe franchise has some pretty hefty names attached to it. The first movie was produced by horror master Sam Raimi (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), and it was written and directed by Fede Álvarez — who previously helmed Evil Dead and is about to give us Alien: Romulus. Álvarez co-wrote the script of Don’t Breathe 2 with Rodo Sayagues, who directed the sequel.
You can stream Don’t Breathe 2 now.
Don’t Breathe 2
- Release Date
- August 12, 2021
- Runtime
- 90
- Writers
- Fede Alvarez , Rodo Sayagues Mendez
watch on Netflix
