Murder Mystery: Jennifer Aniston, Adam Sandler starrer marks Netflix's biggest opening weekend
The critics may have considered 'Murder Mystery' to be "merely mediocre", but it seems audiences think otherwise, with Netflix announcing that the Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston starrer had the biggest opening weekend ever for a Netflix Film. The family comedy currently stands at a disappointing 47% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
"30,869,863 accounts watched 'Murder Mystery' in its first 3 days — the biggest opening weekend ever for a Netflix Film," the streaming service tweeted on June 18.
They broke that number down as 13,374,914 accounts in the US and Canada, and another 17,494,949 more worldwide. What this means is that 'Murder Mystery' is well on its way to beating Sandra Bullock's 'Bird Box', which was watched by 45 million global accounts in its first week of release.
In the movie, Sandler plays New York City police officer Nick Spitz and Aniston joins him as his wife Audrey, a hairdresser and a fan of murder mystery novels. 'Murder Mystery' follows the two on a light-hearted adventure, as they meet a mysterious man aboard a flight, get invited to sail on a billionaire's yacht, and promptly end up as suspects in the billionaire's murder.
The film started development in 2012 and was initially set to star Charlize Theron but it went through quite a few changes before it finally made it to the screen. Sandler's involvement in the film began as early as 2013 and now that the film is being released by Netflix, it will be added to the streaming giant's existing deal with the actor.
In 2014, Sandler had signed a deal with Netflix for four movies, which was then expanded in 2017 to include an additional four movies. His movies with the streaming service have so far been critically panned but loved by audiences. These include ‘The Do-Over', 'Sandy Wexler', and 'The Ridiculous 6' — a Western comedy. The critics haven't been entirely harsh with him though as 'The Meyerowitz Stories', a Noah Baumbach film which starred him opposite Ben Stiller and Dustin Hoffman, received plenty of praise.
Sandler and Aniston have been friends since before her success on 'Friends' and their last outing together was on 2011's 'Just Go With It'.