This Korean Remake Of Hit Netflix Series 'Money Heist' Is Topping The Charts: What Investors Should Know

One of the most successful Netflix Inc NFLX series of all time got a Korean remake that is topping the international streaming charts. Here’s the latest and how it fits into potential growth for the streaming giant.

What Happened: Netflix premiered “Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area” on June 24. The show is a Korean remake of its hit international series “La Casa de Papel,” also known as “Money Heist.”

In its first week on the streaming platform, the series was the number-one most-watched non-English series with 33.7 million hours watched by subscribers. The series ranked as the number-one show in several countries for the week, including South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand.

The show continues a trend of Korean shows topping the global Netflix series list as reported by Variety. Other series “All Of Us Are Dead,” “Juvenile Justice” and “Business Proposal” all hit number one for non-English series on Netflix in the first half of 2022. In 2021, “Squid Game,” a Korean hit series, became the biggest Netflix series by viewership of all time.

The original “Money Heist” was acquired by Netflix in 2017 after its premiere on a Spanish television station. Netflix changed the episode format of the series and later added additional episodes.

The English language series “The Umbrella Academy Season 3” topped last week’s viewership with 124.5 million hours watched. "Stranger Things" ranked second, third and fourth on the list with the three most recent seasons seeing 76.9 million hours, 32.2 million hours and 31.2 million hours watched, respectively.

Related Link: Green Light: Squid Game 2 Gets Teaser From Netflix, Director Shares Details 

Why It’s Important: When Netflix shared data for its top non-English shows to date, “Money Heist” had three of the top four spots:

• Squid Game: 1.65 billion hours
• Money Heist: Part 4: 619 million hours
• Money Heist: Part 3: 426.4 million hours
• Money Heist: Part 5: 395.1 million hours

The fourth part ranked as the third-highest series on Netflix of when counting all series. Several hit shows such as “Bridgerton Season 2” and “Stranger Things Season 4” were not released yet when the list was put out.

"Money Heist" ended on Netflix with season 5 but could continue to be a part of Netflix’s international growth plans.

Along with the Korean remake, Netflix is also working on a spinoff of “Money Heist.” Titled “Berlin,” it would feature one of the central characters of the series and has a 2023 release.

“We do have many possibilities for some spinoffs, yes, and I think that’s thanks to the strong and powerful identities of the characters. We’ve always looked for characters that have a very complex, layered design," Alex Pina, "Money Heist" creator, previously said.

Netflix reported its first net loss for subscribers in more than 10 years in its first-quarter earnings report. The company also guided for global subscribers to be down two million in the second quarter. With huge competition among streaming platforms in the U.S. and saturation points nearing, gaining subscribers in international regions is a key to the company’s growth.

NFLX Price Action: Netflix shares are down 0.16% to $178.07 on Thursday versus a 52-week range of $162.71 to $700.98.