Netflix’s first big theatrical swing around Narnia is already producing blockbuster-level demand. The trailer for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew generated more than 481.3 million views in its first seven days, according to WaveMetrix.
Trailer demand sets a new benchmark
The seven-day figure outpaces the first-week traffic for Gerwig’s Barbie (240 million), Wonka (237.2 million) and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (281.6 million). The trailer trended at No. 1 on X and remained the top trending movie trailer on YouTube. NarniaFilm.com briefly crashed under the rush of visits.
Trailer views are an early demand signal, not a box office guarantee. Barbie used 240 million first-week views as one input before opening to $162 million domestically and finishing with $1.44 billion worldwide. Narnia’s number is roughly double that starting signal.
Why it matters for Netflix’s theatrical push
The film opens stateside on February 12 with a 49-day exclusive theatrical window before it reaches streaming. Sony is handling theatrical overseas. Netflix has started reporting box office grosses, and this release is a test case for how long a window the platform is willing to run.
This is not a one-off experiment. Netflix has said it will report grosses and hold longer windows, making Narnia a template for how a streaming giant markets and monetizes a theatrical-first release. Success will be judged by tickets, not just trailer stats.
Co-CEO Ted Sarandos kept expectations measured on the earnings call: “Our theatrical strategy has evolved.” He added that the company has one week of public box office reporting and wants to check progress again in about six months.
A music first that extends the launch
The trailer also became the first time Led Zeppelin has granted a sync for “Stairway to Heaven” in a film or trailer. Led Zeppelin posted the trailer on Instagram, and Jimmy Page called Gerwig “a powerhouse in the world of cinema.” Gerwig said the band allowed the song because they saw the heart of the story and share a reverence for C.S. Lewis.
Gerwig described the song as “exactly the story of this movie,” framing the Narnia origin tale as a spiritual quest. The sync choice gave the launch a second news cycle beyond the viewership number.
What media and marketing teams should track
- Pair trailer views with ticket search and intent data before treating the number as demand.
- Plan for a 49-day lifecycle, not a single opening-weekend spike.
- Recognize the earned reach effect of a first-ever sync or an exclusive IMAX debut.
Netflix backed the launch with paid media across social, linear and connected TV, plus out-of-home, spanning TikTok, Reddit, Meta, X, Snap, Pinterest and YouTube. The company separately noted that the limited four-theater release of La Bola Negra posted the second-best opening theater average ever for a non-English film after Parasite.
Source: Deadline
