Carry-On Breaks Massive Milestone As One Of Netflix's Biggest Ever Films

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Airport thriller Carry-On has cleared customs and checked in as one of Netflix's most-watched original films of all time.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by T. J. Fixman, the film stars Taron Egerton as a TSA officer threatened into permitting a chemical weapon on board a packed airplane.

During the week of release on December 13, 2024, it earned more views than any other film on Netflix that year. According to the streamer, Carry-On garnered 149.5 million views since its release a month ago. It also stayed at number one for four consecutive weeks on the English-language film list, with 17.4 million views recorded last week.

Netflix's top film ever is Red Notice, followed by Don't Look Up, The Adam Project, and Bird Box, with Carry-On ranked at five. It bumps Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story from the top five.

Carry-On viewing figures

"More than the numbers, it's seeing people's reactions to the movie," Collet-Serra tells Variety. "I started getting a lot of calls and texts from friends and people who didn't know I directed it. They didn't know until they saw the credits and they were sending me texts that they loved it. I think at that moment I knew the movie was finding an audience and connecting to it."

With Carry-On's impressive numbers, especially against a reported production budget of $47 million, you'd think a sequel is all but guaranteed. However, Collet-Serra says sequel talks have yet to happen.

"We don't have any plans for a sequel," he continues. "But if audiences wanted a sequel, families wanted a sequel and if we had an idea that would spark and live up to the original maybe we would do something. But right now, there are no plans."

Korean drama Squid Game season 2 is currently dominating the Netflix charts, staying firm at the top of the non-English TV list with 58.2 million views for the week and ranking number one in 91 countries. "In only 11 days," reports Netflix, "season 2 of the global phenomenon has amassed 126.2 million views — a Netflix TV record. Audiences also continued to catch up with Squid Game season 1, with 13.6 million views and a No. 2 placement on this week's non-English TV charts."