‘Beasts of No Nation’ has had ‘over 3m views’

Ted Sarandos, the head of content acquisition at Netflix, has revealed that more than three million people have watched the company’s original drama Beasts of No Nation.

Netflix purchased worldwide rights to the film, directed by Cary Fukunaga and starring Idris Elba as a sadistic warlord, for $12 million (Dh44 million). It furthers the streaming media company’s strategy to release high-profile, exclusive films.

Speaking about the success of the film, Sarandos told Deadline: “I think [it’s] a bigger audience than any speciality film could ever hope for in its first two weeks of release, and maybe for its entire run. And we’re just starting.”

Sarandos was “thrilled” with the initial viewing numbers in North America. While he wouldn’t share international figures, he said the film is the company’s most-watched title in every country in which Netflix operates. “Even Japan, and I’m only calling out Japan because most speciality films don’t do very much of their box office outside the US, let alone in Japan,” he said. “Studios have trouble opening [speciality] movies in Japan. This was No 1 in really diverse countries — Japan, Brazil, Mexico — places where these [kinds of] films typically never open. It’s been incredibly gratifying to see these audiences respond to this film.”

Beasts of No Nation also had a limited theatrical release, but the box-office figures were poor. In the US, it made less than $84,000. Given Netflix’s distribution strategy, however, this figure seems less relevant.

The film has received almost universal acclaim. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called it “a very powerful and confidently made movie”, and some in the industry believe it could be a contender at the 2016 Oscars.

Beasts of No Nation is the first of many high-profile projects by Netflix. Brad Pitt will appear in the military satire War Machine and Adam Sandler’s controversial comedy-western The Ridiculous Six will be available on Netflix in December.