Aug 23, 2023

-Sun Wukong" ranked #2 on Netflix's Global Top 10.

The Monkey King, directed by Anthony Stacchi, became Netflix's second most-watched English-language film, despite only being available for three days from August 14-20.

The Monkey King, a family-friendly animated adaptation of China's most popular fantasy story, was watched for 13.1 million hours and 8.1 million viewers in its first weekend on the platform. This is well above the 5.5 million hours watched and 3.2 million viewers recorded by "Nimona" in its first weekend, but falls short of "Miracle's" 20.8 million hours watched and 12.2 million viewers: Nimona logged 5.5 million hours and 3.2 million views in its first weekend, while last month's release of " Miraculous: Ladybug and the Cat Noir (a Netflix acquisition, but classified as an original film), with 20.8 million hours and 12.2 million views. [Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir The Movie (a Netflix acquisition but classified as an original film) had 12.8 million hours watched last month. Another animated feature, "Despicable Me 2," also made the top 10 for the 11th time last week, coming in at No. 8.

This is good news for Netflix's original animation division, which has struggled to make an impact with many of its 2022 releases. Apollo 10 1/2: Children of the Space Age, Wendell & Wilde, and My Father's Dragon failed to make Netflix's global top 10, despite being created by top-notch filmmakers Richard Linklater, Henry Selick, and Nora Toomey, respectively. failed to do so.

Speaking of A-list directors, Journey to the West was executive produced by legendary Chinese actor/director Stephen Chow, who also directed the 2013 live-action adaptation of the same story (and a slew of other modern action-comedy masterpieces). His commercial know-how and experience with action scenes undoubtedly enhanced the audience appeal of Sun Wukong.

Critics who reviewed the film prior to its debut were mostly positive, but since its premiere, most reviews have been less favorable; Netflix subscribers are now far more receptive to "The Monkey King" far more acceptably.