Unlike Keanu Reeves’ and director David Ayer’s forgotten 2008 feature, “Street Kings,” Ti West’s “X” didn’t really need any sort of streaming renaissance to get the credit it deserved. Back in 2022, the film made $15 million on a budget of $1 million, making it yet another modern horror success story. With that kind of box office performance, “X” joined such recent sleeper horror hits as “Skinamarink,” “Barbarian,” “Smile,” and “Terrifier 2,” the success of which was similar to “X” in that Damien Leone’s mega-slasher made $15 million on a budget of just $250,000.
“X” was quickly followed by the prequel film “Pearl,” also starring Goth, and the trilogy will conclude with “MaXXXine,” rumored for a release later this year.
But a little streaming success never hurts, and “X” has proven it can bring in the Netflix crowds despite its gory content and decidedly adult theme. Debuting on the streamer February 1, 2024, “X” managed to instantaneously hit the top 10 in the U.S., ranking in the tenth spot on the day it arrived. According to streaming data aggregator FlixPatrol, since that auspicious debut the film has stuck around, briefly hitting number eight on February 5, before falling back to number 10 the following day. As of February 7, it’s still holding on to that number 10 spot, refusing to be killed off and clinging to dear life like so many final girls that came before.
Are Netflix’s viewing metrics all that trustworthy? Well, no. It’s also worth bearing in mind that “X” is in the number 10 spot for films, not necessarily the overall chart (Netflix hasn’t released the overall Top 10 for this week just yet). But hey, a win is a win, and it’s great to see a horror in the top 10, especially one of this caliber.