Two Spanish titles, ‘Society of the Snow’ and ‘Berlin,’ are the top Netflix contents worldwide

The Spanish audiovisual industry is once again displaying its strength by conquering Netflix’s Global Top 10 list. According to data provided by the platform (published every Tuesday), J.A. Bayona’s Society of the Snow, and Berlin — a prequel to Money Heist — lead the ranking of the most-viewed films and series around the world.

Despite only being in its catalog since Thursday, January 4, Society of the Snow is the film with the most hours viewed worldwide in the first week of 2024, from January 1 to 7. It is ranked number one in the non-English film section, but its figures are also higher than those of any title in the English film list: 55.8 million hours viewed, and 22.9 million views. In contrast, The Equalizer 3 garnered 26.6 million hours viewed and 22.8 views.

In addition to being a success among the viewers, Bayona’s production, which tells the story of the survivors of the plane crash in the Andes in 1972, is one of the platform’s bets to ensure its presence in the awards season. After getting good reviews in September following a screening at the Venice Film Festival, it was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Non-English Language Film, and it is one of the favorites to obtain the same nomination at the Oscars. For now, it has already made the cut, figuring among the 15 finalists in the Best International Feature Film category. On Tuesday, January 23, it will be known if it becomes one of the five final candidates. It rubs shoulders with some of the most celebrated titles of the year: The Zone of Interest, by Jonathan Glazer; the Finnish Fallen Leaves, by Aki Kaurismäki; the French The Taste of Things; the Italian Io capitano; the Icelandic Godland; the Danish The Promised Land; the Mexican Tótem, by Lila Avilés, the German The Teachers’ Lounge; the Ukrainian documentary 20 Days in Mariupol; and the Japanese Perfect Days, by German director Wim Wenders. In Spain, it also leads the Goya nominations, with 13 nods.

Before its streaming release, Society of the Snow premiered in Spanish theaters in mid-December 2023. However, it is not possible to know with certainty how many people have seen it, as Netflix has not released its box office figures. Bayona has already been at the helm of several international projects, such as the first episodes of the series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Prime Video and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, with more than $1.3 billion in revenue worldwide.

Berlin, the other great Spanish hit on Netflix, is a spin-off of one of the platform’s milestones. Following in the wake of Money Heist, but with a tone deliberately closer to that of a romantic comedy, this prequel focuses on the controversial (and very popular) character played by Pedro Alonso. Last week, it already topped the list of the most watched series in the world, overtaking both the titles in English and those in other languages. It garnered more than 11 million views and 77 million hours viewed in its first days with its eight episodes, released all at once. Ricky Gervais: Armageddon, number one in the English category, was far behind, with eight million views. This week, Berlin was the second most watched series on Netflix, only behind the British limited series Fool me Once. The Spanish series has doubled the numbers from the week of its release, garnering 22 million views and more than 146 million hours viewed.

The success of these two productions joins that of the film Nowhere by Albert Pintó, which, after securing the top position when it premiered at the end of September, has remained on the list of the most-viewed non-English titles for 12 weeks.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition