Pricey 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' Hits the Mark with Audiences -- Netflix Weekly Rankings For February 20-26

Avatar: The Last Airbender was the most viewed title on Netflix’s self-published top 10 weekly rankings for the week of Feb. 20-26.

Based on Nickelodeon’s popular eponymous animated series, the pricey live-action adaptation, produced at a reported $15 million per each of its first eight episodes, generated 153.4 million viewing hours and 21.2 million views in its first four days on the rankings.

For Netflix, it's the second biggest weekly audience this year, trailing only the debut of limited series Fool Me Once. Avatar: The Last Airbender was the No. 1 streaming show in America last week.

First-week viewership for ATAB was 15% higher than the debut of Netflix’s other recent anime adaptation, One Piece. Based on fan-favorite manga and anime of the same name by Eichiro Odai, One Piece premiered at 140 million viewing hours for the week of Aug. 28-Sept. 3.

With a total budget reported at around $144 million, but less known to U.S. audiences brand-wise, One Piece remained on Netflix’s top 10 charts for eight weeks after its debut.

Also Read: Romcoms Rule, as ‘One Day’ and ‘Players’ Top the Series and Film Charts — Netflix Weekly Rankings for Feb. 12-18 

On the film side of Nerflix's business, Tyler Perry’s newest film, legal thriller Mea Culpa, starring Kelly Rowland, garnered 32 million viewing hours and 16 million views in its first four days on Netflix.

Perry’s last Netflix film, A Jazzman’s Blues, debuted to just 15.7 million viewing hours in September of 2022. But with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 21% and an audience score of 2.7 on Google, it’s going to be an uphill battle for Mea Culpa to keep its place on the rankings.

Also maintaining its place in Netflix's weekly rankings was Swedish disaster-thriller film The Abyss, which pulled out nearly 30 million additional viewing hours last week, landing at No. 1 on the non-English movie titles list with 38.2 million hours watched.

A fictionalized depiction of the real-world seismic activity occurring in Kiruna, Sweden, the film follows Tuva Novotny’s character as she journeys into a crumbling mine to save the life of her son.