With the wide amount of internet attention that surrounded the release of the Netflix Original film Bird Box, it would seem that the shared social interest would lead to immense viewership. This proved to be quite correct as according to Netflix, it garnered about 26 million subscriber views in the first seven days.

The post-apocalyptic psychological horror, directed by Susanne Bier, starring Sandra Bullock as lead, and based on the 2014 novel of the same name, became a social media phenomena, sprouting a plethora of memes related to the movie’s premise on sites like Twitter. Both average users, celebrities, and brands have joined mimicking and commenting on the film or performing the “Bird Box Challenge”.

WARNING: Do not attempt the Parkey challenge in Chicago!

Go Birds(Box)! pic.twitter.com/fS3slayUyJ

— Gritty (@GrittyNHL) January 8, 2019

Even this bird's tired of the Bird Box memes pic.twitter.com/vicr76Hg6O

— TV Time (@tvshowtime) January 8, 2019

Even though Netflix has been very hush-hush about viewer and account statistics in the past, they claimed that over 45 million accounts had watched at least 70 percent of the film within the first week. This makes Bird Box the second-most viewed piece of Netflix original content, sitting right under Stranger Things Season 2 by less than a million views. This goes to show the power of memes, and social media basically acting as marketing for the film, gaining it attention and therefore attracting viewers with access to a Netflix account, even with its fairly mediocre critical standing.