Wake Up Dead Man Surges to No. 1 on Netflix as Stranger Things Hype Builds Ahead of Season 5 Vol. 2

Rian Johnson dropped his third Benoit Blanc case right in the middle of winter, promised an impossible puzzle, and guess what: it worked. 'Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery' just took the top spot on Netflix’s English films chart with 20.2 million views for the week.

The case this time

Daniel Craig is back as Benoit Blanc, poking around a small town after a local firebrand priest, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), turns up dead. The obvious suspect is the younger priest he sparred with, Jud Duplenticy (Josh O'Connor), but Johnson is doing a locked-room thing here, so 'obvious' probably isn’t the answer. The stack of familiar faces around the mystery includes Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church.

Johnson has called this entry the bleakest of the bunch and, apparently, the one that gave him the most grief on the page:

'The hardest script I’ve ever written.'

He says that’s because it wrestles with personal themes that get into faith and reason, which is not exactly light fare for a whodunit.

How the numbers stack up

Being No. 1 is great, but 20.2 million views isn’t some shatter-the-earth debut by recent Netflix standards. For context: in November, Guillermo del Toro’s 'Frankenstein' opened with 29.1 million views. Earlier this year, 'KPop Demon Hunters' blew the doors off and became Netflix’s most-watched film ever with 236 million views (and climbing). On the TV side, there have been massive premieres too — 'Wednesday' Season 2 bowed with 50 million views, and 'Stranger Things' Season 2 began life at 59.6 million.

Meanwhile in Hawkins

Because nothing on Netflix can move without 'Stranger Things' lurking in the background, Part 1 of Season 5 is holding strong. It sits at No. 3 this week with 11.2 million views, and the earlier seasons have muscled back onto the chart too. That makes three straight weeks with all five seasons on the list.

• Stranger Things Season 5 Part 1: No. 3 with 11.2 million views
• Stranger Things Season 4: No. 6 with 4.8 million views
• Stranger Things Season 3: No. 5 with 4.8 million views
• Stranger Things Season 2: No. 8 with 4.7 million views
• Stranger Things Season 1: No. 7 with 4.7 million views

So why isn’t 'Wake Up Dead Man' bigger?

Fair question. On paper, this thing has everything: franchise recognition, a murderers’ row of a cast, and a release window without many other juggernauts crowding it. Maybe the 2.5-hour runtime is scaring off casual viewers. Maybe the tone is darker than people expected from a Benoit Blanc romp. Maybe Netflix didn’t juice the marketing as hard as they could have. Or maybe it’s just week one and word of mouth needs a minute.

My quick take

I watched it Sunday night and had a good time. It clicked for me more than 'Glass Onion' did, and Josh O'Connor is kind of worth the price of admission on his own. If you’re in the mood for a moodier Blanc case, this is that.