Netflix's A-list caper 'Red Notice' steals Netflix record for biggest film debut ever

Netflix is seeing red and in this case, it's actually a good thing. According to an Instagram post from Ryan Reynolds, the streamer's star-studded heist-comedy, Red Notice, nabbed the biggest film debut for any title in Netflix history.

Reynolds, who plays one of the world's most notorious art thieves, Nolan Booth, also took the time to crack a topical joke about the release of Taylor Swift's re-recorded Red album, which dropped the same day as the movie. "Congrats to this whole team!" wrote the actor. "Can’t wait for Red Notice (Taylor’s version)."

Johnson also celebrated the news in a video message to his fans. "I'm f—in' blown away by that," he said. "I love you guys. Thank you so much on behalf of myself, Gal Gadot, Ryan Reynolds, our producers, our writer-director Rawson [Marshall] Thurber, our Netflix partners [and] certainly on behalf of Seven Bucks Productions. All of this, by the way, in just one day. I love you guys. Thank you." The actor/producer closed it out by promising to celebrate with his own brand of tequila: Teremana.

"This is amazing!!!!" wrote Gadot in a post of her own. "What can I say, you guys are the best and the reason why we make these films. So grateful and excited!!! Congratulations @Netflix and to the entire #RedNotice team."

It should be noted that the company did not release any specific metrics.

A mixture of Ocean's 11, Indiana Jones, and The Thomas Crown Affair, Red Notice follows John Hartley (Johnson), a framed FBI profiler who, in order to clear his name, must team up with Booth and steal two priceless eggs given to Cleopatra by Marc Antony. It's a race against the clock to get their hands on the legendary artifacts before The Bishop, another notorious art felon (Gadot), acquires them. This is Thurber's third team-up with Johnson after Central Intelligence and Skyscraper.

In the official production notes provided by Netflix, the filmmaker describes the film — which allegedly started to take shape during the making of Skyscraper — as "a throwback to big, fun, swashbuckling, movie star movies. So, the whole pitch was big stars, big action, big laughs. It was always in the DNA from the very, very beginning, of wanting to do a globe-trotting heist film with the three biggest stars in the world."

The movie's record-smashing debut is a fulfillment of something else Thurber says: “Netflix has 214 million subscribers around the world, and we want them all smiling, and laughing, and clapping. And that was something that was really important to me, and it was important to Dwayne and Ryan and Gal, and our producers: making a film that could be enjoyed from ages eight to 80, politically left or politically right, in almost any country."

Red Notice is now streaming on Netflix. The film played in select international theaters, bringing in just over $70,000.