Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” was watched more than 26 million times during its first week on Netflix, according to Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos on Tuesday.
To be precise, he said 26,404,081 accounts watched the mob epic in the first seven days following its release on Nov. 27. Sarandos, speaking at the UBS Global TMT Conference, reminded the audience that Netflix counts a view once someone has watched 70% of a show or movie. For “The Irishman,” which clocked in at 3 hours and 29 minutes, that means more than 26 million accounts made it through about 2.5 hours of the movie.
Netflix’s internal measurement for “The Irishman” trounces the 13.2 million U.S. viewers that Nielsen reported watched the film in its first five days.
Sarandos added Netflix expects “The Irishman” to be watched by 40 million accounts by the end of its first month on the service.
The movie, starring Robert De Niro as mob hitman Frank Sheeran, alongside longtime screen buddy Joe Pesci and Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa, has earned rave reviews from critics, including from TheWrap’s Alonso Duralde. And while there have been a fair share of complaints about how long it is, most fans seem to have enjoyed it, too, with “The Irishman” sporting an 86% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.