Like Vecna’s hive mind, fans were united last week as they pushed Stranger Things 5 to the top of the English TV list with 34.5 million views. Volume 2 of the new season made December 25 Netflix’s most-watched Christmas Day ever globally. The three new episodes brought newly heightened suspense as viewers ready themselves for this week’s series finale, which streams on December 31 at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET, and screens in theaters across the US and Canada through January 1. Over 1.1 million fans have already RSVP’d for the screenings.
The Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Stranger Things: The First Shadow also had a banner week as the play broke the 9-performance house record at the Marquis Theatre with a gross of $2,510,948. With the launch of Season 5 on Netflix, demand across both Broadway and West End productions of the play surged, with ticket sales at their highest levels since the initial launch of the two productions.
For a fifth unprecedented week, Seasons 1-4 of the series have also landed in the Top 10, with Season 1 at No. 5 (4.8 million views), Season 2 at No. 9 (3.6 million views), Season 3 at No. 8 (3.6 million views), and Season 4 at No. 6 (4.1 million views).
At No. 2 on the list was Emily in Paris Season 5 with 13.3 million views. This season, Emily (Lily Collins) breaks out her passport as she moves to Rome to open a new office for Agence Grateau while exploring romance — and Italy — with fashion scion Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini). Veteran comedian Dave Chappelle proves he’ll never stop making fans laugh in his new stand-up comedy special Dave Chappelle: The Unstoppable…, which took No. 3 in its second week on the list with 9.2 million views.
On the English film list, viewers settled in for an intricate whodunnit as they put Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery at No. 2 with 11.8 million views. In Benoit Blanc’s (Daniel Craig) latest investigation, a small-town priest, Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor), is at the center of the seemingly impossible murder of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) and faces the wrath of the church’s secretive congregation (Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church.)
Making her directorial debut, Oscar-winning actor Kate Winslet’s film Goodbye June premiered at No. 5 on the list with 7 million views. The film follows four adult siblings (Winslet, Toni Collette, Andrea Riseborough, and Johnny Flynn) who are thrust into chaos just before Christmas when confronted with the declining health of their mother (played by Helen Mirren).
Hot on the heels of an exciting performance by EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, and REI AMI — the singing voices of HUNTR/X — in Snoop’s Holiday Halftime Party, the animated sensation KPop Demon Hunters took No. 3 on the list with 9.1 million views.
Audiences at large celebrated the holidays with a handful of Christmas movies. Among the festive entries on the English film list: the costume romance My Secret Santa (No. 6, 6.7 million views), the family comedy The Christmas Chronicles (No. 7, 5.8 million views), and the rom-com caper Jingle Bell Heist (No. 10, 4.1 million views). Keeping viewers cozy this Christmas was the most popular yule log of the week, Fireplace for Your Home: Crackling Birchwood Fireplace, which took the No. 10 spot on the list with 3.2 million views.
The Great Flood held the top spot on the non-English film list, earning 33.1 million views. The Korean disaster film stars Kim Da-mi as an artificial intelligence researcher who, while trapped in a high-rise apartment building, must race against the rising tides to save her family and the future of humanity. A Time for Bravery rose to the No. 2 spot on the list, collecting 8.2 million views. The Mexican buddy comedy is led by Luis Gerardo Méndez and Memo Villegas as a therapist and a detective who set out on an action-packed investigation.
The sophomore season of Culinary Class Wars continued to top the non-English TV list with 4.7 million views. The Korean competition series matches the underrated “Black Spoon” cooks against the acclaimed “White Spoon” chefs, all for a prestigious set of judges: Paik Jong-won and Anh Sung-jae.
The superhero K-drama Cashero debuted in the No. 2 spot, firing up 3.8 million views. Based on the webtoon of the same name, the Korean series sees Lee Jun-ho playing Kang Sang-ung, a down-to-earth civil worker who gains superpowers that fluctuate based on the amount of money he has on hand.
