The Staggering Amount Of Time Netflix Viewers Spent Watching The Sea Beast's Debut

For those yearning for another animated adventure full of mythical creatures in the style of the "How to Train Your Dragon" franchise, "The Sea Beast" is here to answer your calls. The latest feature film installment out of Netflix Animation, nearly all of "The Sea Beast" was made during the pandemic. A fresh take on classic sea monster tales, the movie chronicles a group of sailors in their mission to hunt down a massive and notoriously dangerous serpent known as the Red Bluster. Leading the flick's voice cast are "The Boys" actor Karl Urban as sailor Jacob Holland and "Morbius" actress Zaris-Angel Hator as the young stowaway Maisie Brumble.

Though "The Sea Beast" had a limited theatrical release in late June, the feature's true entrance into mainstream discussion coincided with its debut on Netflix on July 8. The film immediately saw gargantuan success on the streaming service, continuously racking up total hours viewed by users. When its debut week finally wrapped up, the production had achieved a viewing metric that is sure to make anyone with doubts about the movie's popularity think twice.

"The Sea Beast" quickly topped Netflix's official chart of its global top 10 movies for the week of July 4 to July 10, despite only being available for the final three days. Within that 72-hour span, it was watched by Netflix's user base for a total of 33,520,000 hours. Directly behind it on the list was the true-crime documentary "Girl in the Picture," with a total watch time of 28,380,000 hours.

"Many congratulations and HUZZAHS to @JustChris & the supremely talented crew/cast of #TheSeaBeast for reaching #1 on @netflix's Global Top Ten!" Jared Harris, who voices Captain Crow in the movie, tweeted in response to the news. "It is a wonderful film with so much to say, and swashbuckling, too!"

The film's success on Netflix mirrors that of other original animated films that have debuted on the platform. One of the streaming service's other recent animated films, "Back to the Outback," also broke the top 10 for most-watched films on the platform when it was released on December 10, 2021, and it maintained a spot on the list for seven consecutive weeks. The similarly warm reception to "The Sea Beast" reaffirms that Netflix's original animated film content represents a crucial segment of the platform's content lineup.

"Our crew pushed hard on this movie, and I'm so glad that people are responding to it!" director of "The Sea Beast" Chris Williams, who once left Disney for Netflix, wrote in a tweet regarding the movie's popularity. "Thank you everyone for watching!"