Adam Sandler has had a good thing going with Netflix for half a decade now thanks to a special distribution deal, which was renewed back in January. The majority of the Saturday Night Live alum’s movies during that time have been released on Netflix, and while they haven’t all been critically well received, most of them have collected a lot of views, including Sandler’s latest feature, Hubie Halloween.
Premiering on the streaming service on October 7, Hubie Halloween ranked in the #1 spot on Netflix during its first two weeks of availability, which is an impressive feat on its own. Now Variety reports that Netflix has released its popularity scores accumulated from April to October of 2020, and Hubie Halloween has ranked as this year’s most popular Netflix original movie in the United States yet. It was only outpaced by Polish movie 365 Days in overall movie rankings.
Considering that Netflix is cagey with the information it provides on how its content performs, it’s hard to say exactly what metrics were used to determine Hubie Halloween’s popularity, whether it was just purely looking at the viewership numbers or taking other information into account. Nevertheless, considering that Hubie Halloween has only been available to the public for a month, the fact that it’s managed to stand the tallest among this year’s other Netflix original movies (including Extraction) is extraordinary.
Naturally Hubie Halloween arriving several weeks before Halloween itself likely helped with its performance, especially in 2020 of all years. With the current health crisis still raging, thus putting a damper on Halloween-related festivities, more people were staying inside, resulting in more opportunities to watch Halloween-related movies. And sure, classics like Hocus Pocus and Beetlejuice are fun to re-watch every year, but Hubie Halloween was a brand-new offering that clearly piqued a lot of people’s interest.
Now, will Hubie Halloween go down as a Halloween classic that plenty of people will keep watching going into 2021 and beyond? Critically speaking, it’s been met with mixed reception from both critics and audiences, so it might face an uphill journey in that regard. However, Adam Sandler is certainly hopeful Hubie Halloween becomes traditional viewing during the Halloween season, recently saying how he decided to make it for specifically that reason.
Set in Salem, Massachusetts, Hubie Halloween saw Adam Sandler playing Hubie DuBois, who is ridiculed by nearly everyone in the city. However, Hubie gets his chance to shine on Halloween when he looks after Salem as the Halloween Helper and tracks down a kidnapper. The movie’s cast also includes Julie Bowen, Maya Rudolph, Tim Meadows, Kevin James, Ray Liotta, Rob Schneider, June Squibb, Kenan Thompson, Shaquille O’Neal and Steve Buscemi, among others.
With Hubie Halloween now behind him, Adam Sandler is gearing up to work on more movies for Netflix. The first of those will be Hustle, which follows a washed-up basketball scout who discovers a talented player in China and hopes to use him to make it back into the NBA. Then Sandler will tackle The Spaceman of Bohemia, which is about a Czech astronaut who’s sent on a mission to Venus.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on Adam Sandler’s professional endeavors, and learn what Netflix plans to drop through November with our detailed lineup.
