“Lucifer" Season 5 breaks Netflix records as the biggest TV series opening weekend

“Lucifer" Season 5 dropped on August 21. One day after the popular show’s premiere, “Lucifer” rocketed on Netflix to No. 1, blowing past “The Legend of Korra,” which held the previous position for No. 1 for TV, and Project Power, the No. 1 Netflix movie. Additionally, “Lucifer” Season 5 made history by becoming the biggest TV series opening weekend debut on Netflix, a Netflix record previously held by “The Umbrella Academy.”

“Lucifer” Season 5 in the Top 10

Netflix introduced a new algorithm for these results in February of this year with the new “Top 10” ranking system. Each country’s No. 1 spot in the Top 10 is worth 10 points, and position No.  10 is worth one point. Failing to make it into the Top 10 warrants zilch. In total, “Lucifer” managed to bag 670 points over the opening weekend, beating the previous record holder, “The Umbrella Academy” by 27 points. Overall, the show became the fourth biggest opening weekend debut overall, with “The Old Guard” sitting at No.1, “Project Power” at No. 2 and “The Kissing Booth 2” at No. 3.

The series obtained the No. 1 spot in many countries around the world, with a few exceptions where it still featured in the Top 10.

A fan favorite

“Lucifer” follows the Lord of Hell leaving his kingdom and heading to Los Angeles, where he teams up with a detective to solve criminal cases. The show has seen many ups and downs, and hasn’t had a typical trajectory. You can see an example of this in the varying episode count for each season.

Season 1 (FOX) – 13 episodes

Season 2 (FOX) – 18 episodes

Season 3 (FOX) – 26 episodes

Season 4 (Netflix) – 10 episodes

Season 5 (Netflix) – eight episodes have released so far, eight more are expected soon

Season 6 (Netflix) – Confirmed by “Lucifer" himself, actor Tom Ellis revealed in an interview that Season 6 will contain 10 episodes, however there are talks of extending it to 17 episodes so the show reaches a total of 100 episodes – a common trend in FOX’s TV shows

Although Fox canceled the show after three seasons, Netflix picked it up for an extra two seasons after fans started a social media campaign using hashtag #SaveLucifer. Since then, its growing popularity saw Netflix renew the show for a sixth and final season, even after Season 5 was originally proposed to be its last.

What’s next

Movie and TV tracking platform TVTime revealed that “Lucifer” topped their Binge Report for two weeks in a row.

Although only the first eight episodes of Season 5 have dropped, fans are eagerly awaiting the next eight episodes, and showrunners have announced that around 60% of the Season 5 finale is yet to be shot, as production shut down back in March due to coronavirus.

Luckily for “Lucifans,” we can expect production to resume on September 24, where they will wrap up Season 5 and instantly head into shooting for the final season. The second half of Season 5 should release by the end of this year or early next year, depending on how quickly they can wrap up shooting for Season 5 and finish the post-production work on Season 5B.

“Lucifer" Seasons 1-5A are streaming now on Netflix.

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