Movies and TV shows about pandemics and disasters are surging in popularity on Netflix
- The docuseries "Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak" and the disaster movie "2012" were among Netflix's most popular titles in the US on Friday.
- The 2016 CW limited series "Containment," about a deadly virus that breaks out in Atlanta, was one of Netflix's most popular TV shows.
- Other titles, like "Outbreak" and "Contagion," have surged in popularity on Netflix and elsewhere amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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Movies and TV shows about pandemics and disasters are surging in popularity on Netflix as the coronavirus spreads.
Netflix's docuseries "Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak" and the 2009 disaster movie "2012" were among the Netflix's most popular titles in the US on Friday.
Here's a rundown of the disaster titles on Netflix's US top charts on Friday:
- "2012" was the seventh most popular overall title and second most popular movie.
- "Pandemic" was the tenth most popular overall title and the sixth most popular TV show.
- The 2016 CW limited series "Containment," about a deadly virus that breaks out in Atlanta, was the tenth most popular TV show.
- The 1995 movie "Outbreak" was the fifth most popular movie.
- The 2019 sci-fi movie "3022," about astronauts stranded on a space station after Earth is destroyed, was the ninth most popular movie.
Netflix recently added daily top 10 lists to the service that highlight its most popular movies and TV shows. It uses a new viewership metric to calculate the lists, which counts a view if an account watches at least two minutes of a movie or series.
These titles aren't the first about the end of the world and pandemics to rise in popularity amid the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 10,000 people worldwide.
The 2011 movie "Contagion," about a pandemic, surged in the iTunes charts this month and was the third most popular movie on the platform on Friday. It has also risen in popularity on piracy streaming sites, according to the piracy analytics company Muso.
