‘La Casa de Papel’ (‘Money Heist’) Tops Netflix’s Charts in Key European Markets
By Elsa Keslassy
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “La Casa de Papel” (“Money Heist”) Part 3 was the most-watched content on Netflix in 2019 across major European markets, including France, Spain and Italy, according to information released Monday by the streaming giant. In the U.K., however, both Alex Pina’s “” and, more curiously, British royal family series “The Crown” were missing from ’s top 10 list, with the most popular release of 2019 being “The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann,” the true-crime documentary about a British girl who went missing during a vacation with her parents in Portugal more than a decade ago.
The other local titles included on the U.K. chart include Ricky Gervais’ “After Life,” the David Attenborough-fronted natural history series “Our Planet” and the Netflix flagship original “Sex Education,” which also performed well in the rest of Europe. “Stranger Things 3” also showed up in the top 10 across Europe.
Martin Scorsese’s epic crime drama “The Irishman,” which is generating Oscar buzz, performed well, making the top 10 list in most of the major European territories.
Netflix said the rankings were based on the number of households that watched at least two minutes of a film or one episode during the content’s first 28 days on the service. Although the charts take into account all movies, series and documentaries released on the streamer in 2019, including acquired titles, Netflix originals dominated most of the lists across Europe.
Among the most popular titles were Michael Bay’s action-packed “6 Underground,” starring Ryan Reynolds, which came in second in the U.K., Germany and Italy, and third in France and Spain; and the medieval fantasy series “The Witcher,” which was the most-watched content on Netflix in Germany. In France and Spain, “The Witcher,” which stars Henry Cavill, came in second.
Apart from “6 Underground,” other films that drew the most eyeballs in Europe were “Murder Mystery” (third in the U.K., fourth in Germany and fifth in Italy) and “Triple Frontier” (fifth in Germany, eighth in France and ninth in Italy). “” came in fourth in the U.K., third in Germany and fifth in Italy and Spain.
While English-language content dominated the charts in key European markets, in Spain, where Netflix opened a large production hub earlier this year, it was a different scenario. A flurry of Spanish-language series produced by and for the streamer thrived in Spain. Alongside “Casa de Papel” Part 3, the second season of drama thriller series “Elite,” the third outing for the period series “Cables Girls” and the mystery show “High Seas” made it onto Spain’s top 10 chart.
In France and Italy, by contrast, only one local title made the cut: France’s “Family Business” and Italy’s teen drama “Baby” took the 10th slot in their respective markets.
