Netflix Top 10: ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ Jumps to No. 1 as ‘Stranger Things’ Returns Ahead of Season 4

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterMedia stocks were up when the bell rang Monday, showing growth from where they closed the Memorial Day-shortened trading week last Friday. The movement is a bit of a rally in the market, which has been trending toward bear territory for two months, that comes days before the U.S. consumer-price index release.The tech-sector heavy Nasdaq index closed at 12,012.73 on Friday, which was down 0.9% for the week and -9.5% year-to-date.

the new season of Stranger Things has become a total success! Fans of the Netflix series are still going strong, supporting the show and the fan-favorite characters that are all grown up now and have new stroylines in the sci-fi horror universe.The latest season of the show broke a record this weekend, being recognized as the English language series with the biggest debut ever for the streaming platform, surpasing the second season of Bridgerton.Volume 1 of the fourth season of Stranger Things achieved 286.7 million hours viewed, while Bridgerton had 193 million hours viewd back in March.The streaming platfom revealed that the show also broke another record, reaching the top 10 in 93 countries and number 1 in 83 countries, lifting previous seasons with a total of 38 million hours viewed for season one, 22 million hours viewed for season 2, and 24.3 million hours viewed for season three.But the success of the series is not only for Netflix, as one of the songs used in this new season became a total pop culture success among new generations. ‘Running Up That Hill’ by Kate Bush was included in the soundtrack for the series and used in one of the most popular scenes of the season.Recorded in 1985, the song reached No.

Kate Bush reportedly gave permission to Stranger Thingsto use her song ‘Running Up That Hill’ because she’s fan of the series.Streams of the ’80s synth pop track had increased by 153 per cent after the song appeared on the latest season of the Netflix show. Bush’s seminal hit features on the first episode, in a key moment involving Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink).The song, taken from Bush’s ‘Hounds of Love’, overtook ‘Wuthering Heights’ on Spotify to become her most popular title on the service after it experienced a surge in streams on Spotify.

Stranger Things season four has proved hugely successful, with the Duffer Brothers’ sci-fi show having the biggest premiere weekend ever for a Netflix original series.Launching May 27, fans have racked up 286.79 million viewing hours in the first few days, beating out the launch of Bridgerton season two which managed 193 million viewing hours.According to Netflix, this also is the first season of Stranger Things to reach number one in 83 countries, setting another premiere weekend record. The series reached the top 10 in all 93 countries Netflix is tracking.In the run up to the launch of season four, previous seasons of Stranger Things also saw a huge uplift in views, with people watching 38million hours of season one, 22.2million hours of season two and 24.3million hours of season three between May 23 and 29.Streams of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ have also increased by 153 per cent after the song appeared in several key scenes of Stranger Things‘ fourth season.The first seven episodes of Stranger Things season four are available to stream now, with the last two being released July 1.According to show creators the Duffer brothers, those final two episodes will set up season five.“Typically in the previous seasons, everything wraps up in a nice bow,” Matt Duffer told NME.

Stranger Things, has spoken about working with Taylor Swift on her ‘All Too Well’ short film.Released last year to promote ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’, the fifteen-minute short film saw Sink team up with Dylan O’Brien (Maze Runner).The seven chapters of the film – ‘An Upstate Escape’, ‘The First Cracks In The Glass’, ‘Are You Real?’, ‘The Breaking Point’, ‘The Reeling’, ‘The Remembering’ and ‘Thirteen Years Gone’ – each chronicle a formative period in Sink and O’Brien’s fictionalised relationship, with Swift cameoing as an older version of Sink’s character at the end.Now, speaking about the film in an interview with Glamour, Sink said: “For me, it was just a cool opportunity to step out of being a kid on screen.”“It was really special to me. Taylor is someone I’ve always wanted to work with, but never thought I would because I didn’t think our paths would ever cross,” she added.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterJonathan Bing has left his post as director of communications at Netflix to take the role of chief communications officer at Vice Media Group, Variety has learned.Based out of Los Angeles, Bing will lead Vice Media’s communications strategy across its portfolio of brands, including Vice News, Vice TV, Vice Studios and Refinery 29. He will head up Vice’s communications, brand, and reputation strategy globally “to reflect and deliver against the new ambitions for the business,” per the company.Most recently, Bing was head of communications at Netflix and previously senior vice president of communications for Fox Network Group.

Stranger Things has paid tribute to Nightmare on Elm Street in an episode of season four.Executive producer and director Shawn Levy opened up about casting Nightmare on Elm Street star Robert Englund as Victor Creel in the turning point of the new season of the Netflix series.Englund played serial killer Freddy Krueger in the iconic horror film, and here plays Creel, a man charged with the murder of his family and subsequently locked up in a psychiatric hospital.“He brought a real enthusiasm to his role, and honestly, it was just an honour to watch him work,” Natalia Dyer, who starred opposite Englund as Nancy, in his first  scene in the series.“The role that he plays is just really interesting… He was so lovely and kind and sweet and really gave such a great performance.”“There’s a closeup of [Creel] scratching his fingernails on the desk in his cell,” Levy said to Entertainment Weekly of the first scene between Victor and Nancy and Robin, nodding to Nightmare on Elm Street as Freddy Krueger had metal blades attached to his fingers.“It’s implied that he’s done it for so long that the linoleum desktop is worn away by the scrape of his fingertip.”“The design and evil capabilities of Vecna are clearly descendants of Freddy Kruger,” Levy then confirmed of the show’s new villain.He added of the day on set: “The day I shot with Robert was one of the very few times that the Duffers made a point of coming to set just to hang out and nerd out with Robert Englund.”Meanwhile, NME gave Vol.1 of Stranger Things season four four stars, writing: “While there are some gripes to be had with the penultimate season of the show, it still packs in all the terrifying thrills you’d expect, deftly blending horror and sci-fi to maximum effect

Stranger Things stars Noah Schnapp and Millie Bobby Brown have broken their silence on Will’s sexuality.In light of several plotlines in season four of the Netflix show, including Schnapp’s character Will giving a presentation about the gay mathematician Alan Turing and later a line suggesting he might be struggling to come out, fans have begun to speculate.“Sometimes I think it’s just scary to open up like that, to say how you really feel, especially to people you care about the most,” Will tells his friend Mike in episode five, adding: “because what if they don’t like the truth?”“I feel like they never really address it or blatantly say how Will is,” Schnapp has now said in a recent interview with Variety.“I think that’s the beauty of it, that it’s just up to the audience’s interpretation, if it’s Will kind of just refusing to grow up and growing up slower than his friends, or if he is really gay.”Brown then added: “Can I just say, it’s 2022 and we don’t have to label things. I think what’s really nice about Will’s character is that he’s just a human being going through his own personal demons and issues.“So many kids out there don’t know, and that’s OK.

Stranger Things has been unveiled.The first part of the soundtrack accompanies the first volume of season four, which was released onto Netflix yesterday (May 27). The second volume of the season, and the second part of the soundtrack, will arrive on July 1.The first part of the collection features tracks from artists including Kate Bush, Journey, Talking Heads and The Cramps.‘The Complete Stranger Things: Soundtrack From The Netflix Series, Season 4’ (including Volume I and Volume II) will be available to buy on CD and cassette from September 9 and can be pre-ordered here.

“Stranger Things” will surely leave us with some unanswered questions, but Charlie Heaton thinks we might walk away with a few big answers too. “I think what’s cool about specifically this season and going into the last [season] is that you’re really starting to unveil the curtain and get into the mythology of it all,” he told TheWrap.The first seven episodes of “Stranger Things 4” debuted on Netflix on Friday, and it’s a doozy.

elementary shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Netflix acknowledged the opening scene to “Stranger Things” Friday-released fourth season may be painful for many fans of the show to watch.The streaming service has added a warning screen for US viewers ahead of “Chapter One: The Hellfire Club” because it graphically shows the bloodied bodies of dead children early into the first episode.“We filmed this season of ‘Stranger Things’ a year ago. But given the recent tragic shooting at a school in Texas, viewers may find the opening scene of episode 1 distressing.

’ long-awaited return with season 4, Natalia Dyer teased to ET that everyone was in “real, real danger.” And now that episodes are streaming on Netflix, we know that she wasn’t lying. While the gang is facing peril on multiple fronts, back in Hawkins, Indiana, Max (Sadie Sink) is still reeling from the death of her stepbrother Billy (Dacre Montgomery) and suddenly finds herself a target of the Upside Down. And for Max, things come to a head in episode four, “Chapter Four: Dear Billy,” when she finds herself facing the last days of her life. “Max’s journey this season really is just a lot because she is in a lot of pain and she’s grieving,” Sink says, referring to the fact that from episode one, Max has grown despondent in the wake of Billy’s death at the Starcourt mall.As a result, she’s become what Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) calls a “ghost” and has isolated herself from her group of friends.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNetflix is adding a warning card to the “Stranger Things 4” premiere in light of the shooting on Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which left 21 people dead — including 19 children and two teachers.The warning card, which will show up for viewers in the U.S. when the episodes launch on Friday, reads: “We filmed this season of ‘Stranger Things’ a year ago.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterMatt and Ross Duffer, aka the Duffer Brothers, decided to break up their nine-episode fourth season of “Stranger Things” in a rather unconventional way. By now, most fans of the Upside Down surely know that the first portion of the season, which launches Friday, consists of seven super-sized episodes, while Volume 2, which debuts July 1, has only two installments.Though Episodes 8 and 9 are longer than all the episodes that came before them, running at 85 minutes and nearly two and a half hours, respectively, there could still be concerns among viewers that only two episodes does not a second volume make.But the Duffers assured Variety that Episode 7 of “Stranger Things 4” is not just at the level of any previous season closer they have done, but sets up Episodes 8 and 9 in a way that makes the two-episode Volume 2 feel like it can stand alone.

Netflix has teased Stranger Things events around the world ahead of season four’s release on Friday (May 27).On Tuesday (May 24), the official Stranger Things social media accounts released a thread of coordinates related to different locations in New York, London, Tokyo, Sydney, Milan, Cologne, Krakow, Barranquilla, Kuala Lumpur and Al-’Ula.The post reads: “Something big is coming. Find your city, and that’s where we’ll be.

presumed dead (but was shown to be alive in a sinister camp in Russia, trapped by evil scientists). His distraught pseudo-daughter, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), went with the Byers family as Joyce (Winona Ryder), Will (Noah Schnapp) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) left Hawkins, Indiana for less-dangerous pastures. Steve (Joe Keery) made a new friend in Robin (Maya Hawke).

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“Stranger Things” creators Matt and Ross Duffer, aka the Duffer brothers, were being quite sincere when they teased ideas for expanding the show’s universe in a February letter to fans announcing the end of the Netflix show.The Duffers actually do have an idea for a spinoff series to follow the conclusion of the story of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Hopper (David Harbour), Joyce (Winona Ryder) and the rest of the Upside Down crew — and only one person outside of the duo knows what it is.“We do have an idea for a spinoff that we’re super excited about … but we haven’t told anyone the idea yet, much less written it,” the Duffer brothers wrote in an emailed interview with Variety last week. “We think everyone — including Netflix — will be surprised when they hear the concept, because it’s very, very different.

It’s felt like a lifetime since Netflix subscribers left Hawkins, Indiana in July 2019, when the third season of “Stranger Things” came to a close.

Netflix has released the opening eight minutes of Stranger Things season four – you can check it out below.In the sequence, a flashback visits Hawkins Laboratory in September 1979, as a bloody massacre unfolds.Netflix also announced the first seven episodes of the nine-episode season will be released on May 27, with the final two episodes set to be released on July 1.Show creators The Duffer Brothers recently confirmed episode seven and nine will be movie-length episodes.Speaking to TheWrap, Matt Duffer said: “Seven and nine in particular are movies. And nine is a long movie.”Asked about the length of episode nine, Ross Duffer said: “We’re still refining it but we will say that it is over two hours.

’ anticipated return with season 4, Netflix released the first eight minutes of the upcoming premiere -- taking audiences back in time to Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) days in the Hawkins Laboratory. But it’s a glimpse at the past that viewers may not be expecting. In the opening scene, Matthew Modine returns as Martin Brenner, the lead scientist in charge of the laboratory where they’re conducting experiments and research on Eleven as well as the many children that came before her. During a routine session with Ten, things quickly go wrong when he telepathically sees a bloody massacre.