Picture Credit: Netflix
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein delivered a strong start on Netflix, pulling in 29.1M views in its first three days. That makes it the director’s biggest Netflix debut, topping the launches of both Pinocchio and Cabinet of Curiosities. It ultimately took the number 1 spot on the global movie chart for the week ending November 9th, so let’s dive into the numbers.
Released on November 7th following a limited theatrical run, the R-rated, two-and-a-half-hour film arrives on Netflix with significant critical momentum from its Venice premiere. With a Certified Fresh and Verified Hot score and strong word of mouth, it has been trending widely across social platforms.
Topline number: Frankenstein opened at number 1 on the English Films chart with 73.6M hours watched, translating to 29.1M views.
In terms of 2025 movie debuts, it places fifth amongst the English language titles to debut this year (mostly released on Friday, with a few exceptions). Frankenstein’s opening sits just below Tom Hardy’s Havoc (29.8M views) and ahead of Tyler Perry’s STRAW (25.3M views).
The debut is also the biggest for Guillermo del Toro, with the Oscar-winning Pinocchio debuting to 13.8M views and Cabinet of Curiosities debuting to 6.6M views.
Looking at FlixPatrol numbers for the first few days, the movie has now reached the top spot in 85 countries, with only a handful of holdouts where it’s currently ranking in either #2 or #3 in the daily movie charts.
While we don’t have any theatrical figures (Netflix doesn’t release them), we have anecdotal evidence that it’s doing well and has continued to sell well since the Netflix launch. Even the number of theaters it’s playing in is not quite clear. Ahead of launch, Guillermo del Toro said, “I don’t know the exact number, but it’s three weeks exclusively and then it can stay in theaters longer.” What we do know is that it wasn’t a wide rollout. But did its three-week window play any significant role in its Netflix performance? That’s almost impossible to say.
Looking at a couple of external demand factors — Google Trends global data and Wikipedia page views —you can see that the only significant bump has been its actual Netflix release, with its limited theatrical rollout barely noticeable on these charts.
Google Trends for Frankenstein (top) and Wikipedia pageviews for Frankenstein (bottom)
Next up with Guillermo del Toro is the documentary on the famed creator, Sangre Del Toro, coming to Netflix globally on November 21st, directed by Yves Montmayeur. He’s also producing The Boy In The Iron Box, currently in production, and on the development slate is The Buried Giant, among other titles.
In case you haven’t seen and need more Frankenstein, Netflix also released a 45-minute making-of documentary called Frankenstein: The Anatomy Lesson.
Given the good word of mouth and fantastic reviews that continue to pile in on the likes of IMDb, RottenTomatoes, and Letterboxd, we suspect Frankenstein is going to have some long legs in the top 10s.
We’ll have more analysis on Frankenstein’s numbers via our Top 10 Reports in the weeks to come.
What were your thoughts on Frankenstein on Netflix? Let us know in the comments below.
