The civil trial pitting bitter celebrity exes Johnny Depp and Amber Heard was perhaps the biggest event of 2022 in terms of social internet engagement.
But not even a three-part docu-series focused on that trial, Depp v. Heard, could shake Netflix from its months-long viewership slump last week.
Depp vs. Heard captured 16.2 million views (now Netflix's metric of choice) in its first five days on Netflix, ranking No. 1 among English-language shows on the platform last week. But its 39.5 million total viewing hours ranked behind some of Netflix's other recent "ripped-from-the-headlines!" docu-series, including Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, a three-parter that generated 40.1 million viewing hours in its first five days for Netflix back in February.
Last week's coverage: 'Heart of Stone' Is Solid, But the Summer Slump Rolls On - Netflix Weekly Rankings for August 7-13
Total viewership for the 10 domestic television series ranked in Netflix's Global Top 10 for the week of August 14-20 was down by more than 120 million hours compared to the same week last year.
Likewise, engagement for Netflix's ranked English-language films last week was down around 6% from the comparable week of 2022, although Netflix's most popular show last week could be found in that category.
Gal Gadot espionage thriller Heart of Stone captured the most viewing among all Netflix series and shows for the week of August 14-20.
Also read: We’re Not Just Imagining It, Netflix Viewing Really Is Down From Last Year
The poorly reviewed action film captured 74 million total streaming hours and 35.2 million views, making it Netflix’s third most popular domestic film release of the year behind Chris Hemsworth's Extraction 2 and Jennifer Lopez's The Mother.
But Netlfix hasn't had a film crack 100 million viewing hours since Knives Out sequel The Glass Onion's 127-million-hour week 2 performance last December.
In fact, with the striking Writers Guild of America calling out Netflix and other streaming companies for turning the deft art of movie and series creation into a rather paint-by-numbers affair, it's hard to remember the last Netflix movie following Glass Onion (92% on Rotten Tomatoes) to capture good critics reviews.
Certainly, the Sony/Screen Gems-produced Russell Crowe title The Pope's Exorcist didn't possess the spirit of strong critical appeal (47%) ... or popularity, with a miserable 10.4 million hours streamed and 6 million views over its first five days in the SVOD window.
Likewise, the Chinese-co-produced animated comedy The Monkey King (58% fresh) delivered only 13.1 million viewing hours and 8.1 million views for Netflix.
Put simply, Netflix is misfiring on all cylinders. Neither bread-and-butter action films nor controversial docu-series are ending its summer cold spell.
Even international content lagged behind this week, with Mexican fantasy-drama The Chosen One: Season 1 premiering to only 3.1 million views. The Brazilian true-crime film A Life Too Short: The Isabella Nardoni Case also topped this week’s international list with a disappointing 5.7 million views.
