Netflix
"Murder Mystery"
- Netflix's "Murder Mystery," starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, won the People's Choice Award for best comedy on Sunday.
- The movie is one of Netflix's biggest hits of all time, with 73 million households watching it in the first month, according to the streamer.
- Critics have trashed all of Sandler's Netflix movies, but Netflix doesn't seem to care: it renewed a four-movie deal with him worth millions in 2017.
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Netflix's "Murder Mystery" has a 45% Rotten Tomatoes critic score, but audiences seem to love the movie.
"Murder Mystery" was viewed by 73 million households in its first month of release, according to Netflix, making it one of the streaming giant's most-watched movies ever, second only to "Bird Box."
Netflix counts a view for a movie if an account watches 70% of its runtime, so we don't know how many people completed "Murder Mystery" - or liked it. But on Sunday we got more proof that audiences actually enjoyed the Adam Sandler-starring movie, as it won the People's Choice Award for best comedy.
There seems be some distance between viewers who voted for the People's Choice Awards and those who rated it on Rotten Tomatoes, as the movie has a 59% audience score based on nearly 600 user ratings. Nevertheless, "Murder Mystery" is a hit.
Netflix struck a four-movie deal worth millions with Sandler in 2014. All of his movies under the Netflix deal have been trashed by critics, with one ("The Ridiculous 6") even receiving a 0% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. But the critics haven't deterred Netflix, which renewed his deal in 2017.
Netflix's content chief, Ted Sarandos, said in 2014 that Sandler "stands out for his global appeal to Netflix subscribers" despite the comedy genre traditionally struggling internationally. "Even movies that were soft in the U.S. [theatrically] outperformed dramatically on Netflix in the U.S. and around the world."
"Murder Mystery" proves again Sandler's enduring popularity for Netflix subscribers.
