Netflix's new adaptation of "East of Eden" debuted at No. 1 on the streamer's weekly TV chart, racking up 6.5 million views in its first four days of availability. The series, created by Zoe Kazan and starring Florence Pugh, is based on John Steinbeck's 1953 novel of the same name.
The adaptation has already had a ripple effect beyond streaming numbers: Penguin Classics has reported a 200% increase in sales of the novel since Netflix announced the project's greenlight.
Despite topping the TV chart, "East of Eden" wasn't the most-watched title on Netflix overall for the week of Sept. 28 through Oct. 4. That distinction belonged to "Unabomber," starring Jacob Tremblay, which pulled in 24.9 million views in its second week of release on the movies chart. Two other films also outperformed the week's top TV titles: "The Widower: 'Til Death Do Us Part" landed in second place on the movies chart with 11.6 million views, while "Tyler Perry's Doing Life" took third with 9.3 million views.
Back on the TV side, "East of Eden" was trailed by "Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story," which logged 5.7 million views in its third week of streaming.
Photo: PunkToad from oakland, us, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
