• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 6 hours ago

The hugely popular Netflix streaming show “Stranger Things” has just started up its fifth and final season.

The initial airing of the first episode of the new season pulled in a record 59.6 million global views over the first five days of release on the service.

That’s the best English-language result ever for a Netflix show’s initial premiere week. The second and third season of “Squid Game,” the network's biggest TV series to date, has the top two viewing weeks.

The show is so big for U.S. Netflix fans that the streaming platform is doing something extra. It will air the series finale episode live in an old-school media venue: In 500 movie theaters.

No worries. The limited theater showing of the two hour-and-five minute finale on December 31, 2025 at 5 p.m. PT will also be simultaneously aired on Netflix’s streaming platform. The creators of the show -- Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer -- push for a special movie theater ender.

This isn’t new. Down through the years the number of TV shows selective episodes have had a theatrical run: The list includes "The X-Files," "Entourage," "Battlestar Galactica," "Friends" and "Game of Thrones," "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

Most recently, "Downton Abbey" had a full theatrical release -- after the series ended over a decade ago.

Some might wonder whether it is possible to do more -- especially in period of much tougher competition when it comes to TV and streaming series marketing -- to gain viewer attention.

Could this mean scheduling more regular, longer theatrical runs beyond just a narrow one-time limited weekend run -- and possibly wider theatrical distribution of, say, 1,000 or 1,500 theaters nationwide?

Networks would then have to weigh standard financial results of key hyped-up season finale, debut seasonal episodes, or series-ending episodes.

This comes with weighing still important sky-high advertising dollars from major TV brands on a specific airing -- something that was much more important to networks and producers when it comes to season finales/series finales of shows like “Friends,” “Cheers,” and the like.

Specifically, big-time dramas and or specific effect action shows would always seem to work better in theaters. A theatrical run can be compelling strictly because of the immersive experience of a big screen for TV shows.

Expanding any theatrical efforts runs into its current competitive situation -- the expanding streaming marketplace, with bigger screens for at-home viewing.

Current theatrical expansion seems primarily to need what any entertainment TV brand desires: An already built-in fandom, coming from the smaller screen initially.

“Stranger Things” has plenty of that.