Greta Gerwig’s Narnia trailer beat Barbie, Wonka and Super Mario Galaxy in first-week views
Greta Gerwig’s Narnia has sprinted ahead, as Netflix’s earnings call reveals its first trailer crushed a viewership record once owned by her own smash.
Forget subtle power moves: Greta Gerwig just smashed her own records with her upcoming take on Narnia. Netflix let slip during their latest earnings call that the trailer for Narnia: The Magician's Nephew didn't just do well—it obliterated everything in its path, including Gerwig's last film, Barbie. Let's get into the numbers and the (honestly pretty wild) details the streamer just confirmed.
Trailer Numbers Gone Mad
WaveMetrix, which sounds like one of those analytics companies with ridiculous dashboards, reported that the Narnia: The Magician's Nephew trailer reeled in a slightly absurd 481.3 million views in its first seven days out there. Just so we're clear: that's more than double the first-week haul for the Barbie trailer, which apparently topped out at around 240 million in the same period.
481.3 million views for the Narnia: The Magician's Nephew trailer in week one—an all-time record for Gerwig and Netflix.
That Narnia preview wasn't just beating Barbie, either. It also left Wonka in the dust (237.2 million) and trounced The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (281.6 million). Audience chaos followed—NarniaFilm.com crashed under the weight of all the traffic, and the trailer hit No. 1 on both X (Twitter, if you're old) and YouTube's trending movie charts. The official launch happened during an IMAX sneak peek in New York on 13 October, where Gerwig popped up to chat to Stephen Colbert about her deep nostalgia for C.S. Lewis and how she's approaching this particular start-of-it-all origin story.
Led Zeppelin, The Cast, and That Release Plan
The music heads among you, pay attention: for the first time ever, Led Zeppelin allowed Stairway to Heaven to be used in a film trailer. And Jimmy Page didn't mince words when he said:
Jimmy Page publicly called Gerwig "a powerhouse in the world of cinema."
Gerwig herself apparently told Colbert she felt "so moved that they allowed me to use the song", and hinted the band members are fans of Lewis and saw something of the book's spiritual edge in the film. Netflix went absolutely nuclear with their promo, buying ad time everywhere from TikTok to the NFL, plus Reddit, Meta, Snapchat, Pinterest, and the rest—explains all the hype, really.
If you're after timings: Narnia: The Magician's Nephew lands in cinemas 12 February for a special 49-day theatrical run (yes, like the old days), before landing on Netflix. Sony has the international end of the deal.
And because casting absolutely matters here, you're getting Emma Mackey, Daniel Craig, Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep, Denise Gough, and Ciarán Hinds—one of the more stacked ensembles we've seen wander into Narnia for a while.