East of Eden Tops Netflix With 6.5M Views, Lowest Since March — SkimNews

Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- East of Eden topped Netflix's weekly charts with 6.5M views in its first week, the lowest #1 opening since One Piece Season 2's third week in late March (5.9M).
- Zoe Kazan's period miniseries, starring Florence Pugh as Cathy Ames alongside Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist, launched October 1 and held off Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story and Wonka's The Golden Ticket.
- Netflix highlighted that the series reached the top 10 in 80 countries and No. 1 in 22, while Penguin Classics saw a 200% bump in book sales since the adaptation was announced.
- East of Eden trailed comparable Netflix period fare: Mark L. Smith's American Primeval opened with 10.4M in early 2025, and All The Light We Cannot See drew 9.8M in its debut week.
- Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story drew 5.7M in its third week, bringing its cumulative total to 32.3M.
- A Different World reboot placed third with 5.1M views, while Wonka's The Golden Ticket was fourth with 4.3M in its second week.
Why it matters: Even with Florence Pugh headlining a prestige Steinbeck adaptation, East of Eden's 6.5M-view debut lagged period predecessors like American Primeval (10.4M) and All The Light We Cannot See (9.8M) by 30-50%, marking Netflix's weakest #1 opening in roughly six months and underscoring a softer-than-expected launch for one of the streamer's biggest prestige bets of the fall.
Ask SkimNews




