Despite being pretty successful when compared to its modest budgetary spend, the James Gunn-produced film Brightburn didn’t fare so well when it came to launching a new would-be superhero franchise. That doesn’t mean that the movie doesn’t have its fans though, as the uber-dark, R-rated spin of the Superman origin, by way of The Omen, definitely has a following. The proof of such a legion existing came from Gunn himself, as even he was surprised to find out that Brightburn is in the top 10 rankings of Netflix’s worldwide catalog.
Apparently the way that James Gun learned this joyous news was through social media, as he’s been getting a lot of questions about Brightburn of late. Doing some detective work as to why, the director of both Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad put it all together and discovered that streaming fans in international markets have been having a field day with revisiting Brandon Breyer’s bloody beginnings. Taking to Twitter, Gunn shared this mini-journey with the world in the following post:
Now if you’re in the domestic market and scratching your head as to why you’re not seeing Brightburn in your queue, there’s a good reason for that. In the US, Starz currently has the streaming rights to the 2019 horror-thriller, and that platform doesn’t offer the same sort of metrics available to the public. But even looking at merely the international numbers, Brightburn’s success on Netflix is a promising sign of the movie’s staying power.
One could even say that if Netflix was looking for another original project to call its own, a potential Brightburn 2 might be something executives in those hills are looking to undertake. As James Gunn has to be one of the busiest people in the world right about now, with both Marvel and DC Comics films in his workflow, a Brightburn sequel might not seem like a high priority on the books. However, as James’s brother Brian and cousin Mark were the force behind writing the film, and director David Yarovesky was the helmer who oversaw Brightburn’s production, all James Gunn would have to do is sign off as a producer, and he’d be in the clear.
Much like how the Netflix success of Real Steel resurrected the sequel hopes of a film released a decade ago, Brightburn could see itself in the limelight once again. The streaming era has been known to do crazier things, and with the competitive nature of the big red streamer well known, it’s a notion that feels right at home. As it stands, Brandon Breyer’s story is still open for another round of malicious mischief, and Brightburn fans can rest easy, knowing that he’s taken the world… just like he always wanted.
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