Adam McKay Says ‘Don’t Look Up’ Was ‘Hated’ by ‘Critics and Cultural Gatekeepers’ but Seen by an Estimated ‘400 Million to Half a Billion’ People on Netflix

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Adam McKay said in an interview with NME that his satirical comedy “Don’t Look Up” was seen by an estimated “400 million to half a billion” people on Netflix despite being “hated” by “the critics and the cultural gatekeepers.” The director was talking about the L.A.

fires and climate change when the topic of “Don’t Look Up” came up, as McKay and his star-studded cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, were outspoken during the film’s 2021 release about it being a metaphor for climate change. “In the face of these dramatic catastrophes that keep happening, a movie seems really small and ridiculous.

But what was inspiring and energizing was the popular response to that movie, not the critics and the cultural gatekeepers who hated it,” McKay said about the movie. “It ended up being number one in something like 85 countries, as diverse as Pakistan, Vietnam, U.S.

and Uruguay. That’s extremely rare for a comedy which is usually confined by cultural regional reference points.” McKay continued, “The estimates of how many people saw that movie – Netflix will never say exactly – but it’s somewhere between 400 million and half a billion.