Happy Gilmore is back on top. Adam Sandler’s long-awaited sequel “Happy Gilmore 2” launched with huge viewership, hitting No. 1 on Netflix’s top 10 list for English-language films.
“Happy Gilmore 2” premiered on Netflix on July 25. From July 21 to 27, the movie got 46.7 million views in just three days. Views are counted by dividing total hours watched by the film’s length. This made it the biggest U.S. opening weekend ever for a Netflix film and Sandler’s best Netflix debut.
He has starred in nearly a dozen original films on Netflix, such as “Murder Mystery,” “Hubie Halloween” and “The Week Of.” The sequel also boosted interest in the first “Happy Gilmore,” which is also streaming on Netflix. The original landed at No. 3 on the global top 10 list with 11.4 million views, marking its second week on the chart.
“Happy Gilmore 2” comes nearly 30 years after the 1996 movie, which made $40 million at the box office and helped establish Sandler as a top comedy actor. The first film followed Happy Gilmore, a failed hockey player with anger issues who becomes a golf star thanks to his odd style. He enters a tournament to save his grandma’s house from foreclosure.
In the sequel, Happy Gilmore quits golf and turns to drinking after a terrible accident on the course. He decides to return to golf to pay for his daughter’s expensive ballet school in Paris. Christopher McDonald returns as the villainous golfer Shooter McGavin, while Benny Safdie, Bad Bunny, Travis Kelce, and Sandler’s real wife and daughters — Jackie, Sunny, and Sadie — join the cast.
The film is full of cameos, including PGA stars Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, “Hot Ones” host Sean Evans, and celebrity chef Guy Fieri. “Happy Gilmore” has a 70% average on Rotten Tomatoes, which is high for a Sandler film. (“Billy Madison” has 42%, “Big Daddy” has 39%, and “Little Nicky” has 22%). In Variety’s review, lead film critic Owen Gleiberman called “Happy Gilmore 2” “a happy orgy of raucous fan-service nostalgia.”
Elsewhere on Netflix’s top 10 movies, “KPop Demon Hunters” ranked second with 26.3 million views in its sixth week. It is now the most popular Netflix animated movie ever. On the TV side, “Untamed” stayed at No. 1 on the English-language series chart for the second week in a row. The Yosemite-set murder mystery earned 26.1 million views, up from 24.6 million in its first week. The show, starring Eric Bana, was recently renewed for a second season.
Meanwhile, the third season of “Squid Game” continued as the top non-English language show for the fifth week straight, adding another 4.6 million views.
Source: Variety