Bird Box is a psychological thriller full of twists and turns. So, is the ending exactly what it seems, or is there more to the story?
Bird Box takes place in a post-apocalyptic hellhole where trusting the wrong person can end in disaster, but its ending is so uplifting that it almost seems too good to be true. The numbers dont lie. People love post-apocalyptic movies in which survival is less about escaping the monster and more about surviving human nature. Theres just something interesting about watching people fight for their lives against supernatural odds. Just look at classic zombie movies like Night of the Living Dead or indie hits like 28 Days Later. Maybe people just like seeing how terrifying situations bring out the worst in characters.
Or maybe theres something hopeful about seeing them put through hell and somehow able to come out the other side swinging. Either way, Bird Box delivered both and had 45 million viewers on the edge of their seats only one week after its release. The movie adaptation of the popular novel performed better than expected. Its plot twists, high drama, and high stakes went on to secure the viewership of 44 million more households in the three weeks following. Still, many people walked away perplexed as to how a movie so gripping could have such a simple ending.
Audience viewership edit
In the first seven days of its US release, Nielsen reports that nearly 26 million people watched Bird Box. It additionally disclosed that a noteworthy portion of its viewership consisted of young people, aged between 2018 and 2034 (36%), women (57%), and either African Americans (24%) or Latinos (22%). [38] In addition, Netflix disclosed its own viewing data, which in just seven days attracted over 45 million viewers globally. The company defined views as those who watched the movie for more than 70% of its duration on the streaming platform. The number of viewers was reportedly the highest for a Netflix production ever. Some analysts expressed skepticism about the audience figure released by Netflix, citing the absence of independent verification of the view count. [39][40] [41][42] In July 2020, Netflix disclosed that during the first four weeks of its release, the movie had been viewed by 89 million households, which was the second-highest number of times for one of their original productions. [43] A Barclays analysis calculated that the movie would have made roughly $98 million worldwide if it had been released in theaters. Within 28 days of its release, Bird Box surpassed all other Netflix films in terms of views, with 282 02 million hours being viewed. It held this position until 2021, when Red Notice overtook it. [45][46].
What is Bird Box about?
The Netflix film Bird Box chronicles a family’s valiant struggle to survive in a world overrun by a terrifying force that drives everyone who sees it to commit suicide. Sandra Bullock’s character Malorie Hayes embarks on this adventure while very pregnant. She is taken to the hospital by her sister Jessica (Sarah Paulson) so she can see her OBGYN. The sisters simply begin the day by making jokes while Dr. Lapham (Parminder Nagra) confirms the babys health. But when they learn that the strange illness wreaking havoc in Europe has finally made its way to the United States, things quickly get worse. Malorie gets sick and is left on her own after she gets hit by a speeding truck, thanks to Jessica.
Fortunately, Malorie is saved by kind strangers who let her into a house where she makes camp with a number of people, including Greg the owner (BD Wong). The title of the film refers to how, when an entity approaches, birds in a box act as a warning. But as soon as the otherworldly component is momentarily removed, humanity’s darker side starts to show. Something that viewers of horror television series like The Walking Dead and All of Us Are Dead have repeatedly witnessed The main defenders of this safe haven are Douglas (John Malkovich), Tom (Trevante Rhodes), and Malorie. However, all it takes is a single misstep, and everything falls apart, forcing Malorie and Tom to escape into the woods.
Reception edit
According to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has an approval rating of 2063% based on 20164% of reviews, with an average rating of 205 8/10. “Bird Box never quite reaches its intriguing potential, but strong acting and an effectively chilly mood offer intermittently creepy compensation,” is the critical consensus as stated on the website. [32] The movie has received “mixed or average reviews” on Metacritic, where it has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100 based on 26 critics. [33].
Brian Tallerico from RogerEbert. com stated, “The majority of Bird Box’s issues stem from a flimsy screenplay that far too frequently gives its characters flat, explanatory dialogue before writing itself into a corner with an absurd climax when it needs to be tense.” In a critical evaluation for the British newspaper The Guardian, Amy Nicholson gave the movie two stars out of five and wrote that “we were tempted to identify with the movie’s first victim, a woman in a tracksuit who is hitting her head against the glass, eager to put this painful scene behind her, as the film staggers on in its quest to give us entertainment satisfaction or death.” [35] Sarah Aswell, writing for Forbes, called the film “a film that embraces everything about the (horror genre) formula, both good and badthe film has moments of genuine, delightful terror, but it also contains some of the corniness and shallowness that many horror films can’t get rid of.” “[36] The New York Times’ Aisha Harris thought the movie was mediocre overall but at times quite captivating. [37].
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