Film business pros doing the forensics on this past long Fourth of July holiday weekend might have come up with these learnings:
> David Spade was way off the mark in 1995 with that hurful "falling star" zinger on SNL aimed at Eddie Murphy. Spade wasn't wrong -- you do gotta break some eggs to make an omelet. But that star never fell. Twenty-nine years later -- and 40 years after the first Beverly Hills Cop movie debuted -- the surprisingly clever fourth iteration of Murphy's signature film franchise on Netflix proved once again he's one of the most talented, versatile and enduring comedic actors of his generation.
> The weekend and holiday "box office" now exists on a three-dimensional plane, with big-budget, big-star Netflix titles competing for engagement right alongside a spry Fourth of July theatrical frame that included Despicable Me 4, Inside Out 2, A Quiet Place: Day One and Bad Boys: Ride or Die.
Even on a global basis, none of those films came close to drawing 41 million viewers (and 80.7 million engagement hours) over the course of the weekend, which Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F did in its first five days on Netflix.
That performance made the Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films sequel the second most watched Netflix film title of 2024, trailing only the week 2, 50.8-million-view performance of Millie Bobbie Brown fantasy-action title Damsel back in mid-March.
In second place among domestic films on Netflix, Nicole Kidman-Zac Efron rom-com A Family Affair grew to an also-impressive 31.7 million views (and 60.6 million engagement hours) for the week of July 1-7, the movie's second week on the platform. Again, no new movie, save for Axel F, surpassed that level of viewership this past weekend.
Last Fourth of July holiday weekend, Pierece Brosnan left family action-comedy The Out-Laws led Netflix viewing with only 19.6 million views.
Among TV series, the debut of London-based superhero drama Supacel captured a solid 61.2 million engagement hours and 11.8 million views across its six first-season episodes.
