Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F Tops Netflix Movies Chart With 41 Million Views in Debut
Maybe Eddie Murphy will get the green light on his fifth turn as Axel Foley?
Netflix‘s Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, which premiered on Fourth of July Eve, racked up 41 million viewers in its debut, topping the streaming giant’s English Movies chart for the week of July 1. (Netflix properly measures as “view” as total minutes viewed divided by running time.)
Running not quite two hours, the 40-year-old franchise’s third sequel finds Murphy‘s Detroit police detective making a beeline for Los Angeles when his daughter Jane’s life is threatened. A criminal defense attorney, Jane is under fire for representing an accused cop killer, though her client — and a lead being diligently chased by Beverly Hills PD vet Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), now a P.I. — suggest that all is not as it seems.
In addition to Murphy and Reinhold, franchise vets John Ashton, Paul Reiser and Bronson Pinchot all put in appearances, as Taggart (un-retired and now an LAPD police chief), Jeffrey (now Axel’s boss at the Detroit PD) and that lemon tweeest-loving Serge. New to the mix are Taylour Paige (The Baxters, Hit the Floor) as the aforementioned Jane Saunders, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as LAPD Detective Bobby Abbott, and Kevin Bacon as the head of a narcotics task force.
TVLine’s review gave Axel F a grade of “C+,” while the average grade from TVLine readers was a “B.”
In its second week of eligibility (after topping Netflix’s English Movies chart last week with 27 million views), A Family Affair starring Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron and Joey King placed second this time around, adding another 31.9 million views.
The Jessica Alba action-thriller Trigger Warning, after generating 26 million views in its debut week, added another 8 million in Week 2 to come in at No. 3.
It was solid given my expecations.
I wish along with the “numbers” they are posting would also list how many people liked or disliked these #1 movies listed from netflix or amazon etc. Or if it counts that they started the movie and didn’t finish it or they didn’t fast forward through it etc.
A lot of these are flat out awful movies.
The first and second Beverly hills cop movies I have watched so many times I can practically quote the movies throughout. I watched the third one once. I can say this sequel is better than the third one (not saying much) but would never need to watch this thing again (like the majority of these high profile netflix/amazon movies that keep coming out).
A “view” is total minutes streamed divided by runtime. That’s the only data point you’ll get from them.
I’m happy for Eddie that it did well and that there’s chances for another one. But, the middle of the movie was a real slog, so I hope they do more than just rely on nostalgia next time.
I agree with you but I feel like after 30 years they had to go heavy on the nostalgia from a fan service aspect. Young people (20’s to 30’s).may have heard about the original but never saw it. Fans of the original really loved those parts that were called back. It definitely can have been done better, but especially with it being on netflix and zero effort on my part to watch, I was happy. That being said, i’m expecting a lot more from the 5th one, a passing the torch to JGL and his movie daughter and real life daughter who played one of the cops who arrested him, that can make for a really great movie.
Huzzah! I loved the new movie. My brother said it was his favorite of the whole series. Thought they did a great job mixing in the old with the new. Loved the new characters too. It was a bit more serious, which is natural considering they’re older, but I also had a lot of laughs watching it. Loved seeing Axel/Billy/Taggart together, again.
Loved the movie. As a high schooler when the original one came out, seeing some of the throwbacks made me smile. The story was better than I expected and loved seeing Taggart and Billy again. Like seeing old friends!! The one the that was unexpected for me was I was waiting for that moment when Det. Abbott shows during the shoot out he was dirty and working for Kevin Bacons character. Had me fooled!!! Great job by JGL. Really like his character!!
I really enjoyed this one. For a moment I kinda thought that they were using the same female hotel reception clerk from the original movie, but from what I could find it isn’t the same lady