Red One Becomes Amazon’s Biggest Streaming Release

Red One — the holiday action comedy starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans — has become Amazon MGM’s biggest opening on its Prime Video service.

The company says that over 50 million worldwide viewers watched the holiday movie over its first four days of release on the service. Previously, Road House held the top spot, attracting 50 million viewers over its first two weeks of release, according to Amazon.

(Amazon did not offer clarity on how it reached the Red One number. By comparison, Netflix and Disney+ divide the runtime of a film by the total number of viewers.)

Said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios, “Every film is different, and we are so grateful for the partnership with our filmmakers in collectively finding the right strategy to get this film in front of the widest possible audience. With Red One, there was no doubt that strategy needed to include a theatrical release and associated marketing campaign, which drove audiences to theaters and generated awareness for the film with viewers who would ultimately tune in on Prime Video. It’s rewarding to see our plan pay off for customers, and we are incredibly thankful to the entire filmmaking team and cast who helped make it happen.”

Unlike Road House, Red One was released in theaters. It played on over 3,000 screens in North America and 3,300 screens internationally, with a current box office cume of over $175 million.

Red One stars Johnson as the North Pole’s head of security who must team up with a hacker off of the “naughty list” (Evans) after Santa Claus gets kidnapped and Christmas is in need of saving.