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Millie Bobby Brown has been one of Netflix's biggest stars for the last several years. Ever since debuting as Eleven on Stranger Things, she has become a breakout performer that audiences, especially of younger generations, really latched onto. That's exactly why Brown was an in-demand actress throughout Hollywood, with Netflix doing everything it could to keep her talents in-house and nearly-exclusive to subscribers.
Beyond Stranger Things' five seasons that she starred in, the rising star grew up on the streamer by also headlining multiple movies. This includes originals like Damsel and her popular Enola Holmes franchise, which sees her take on the role of Sherlock Holmes' sister. The detective movies have now become a proper trilogy with Enola Holmes 3's release on Netflix last week.
While Enola Holmes 3's reviews were mixed, the movie still carried expectations to be a strong performer. The first two movies in this series were well-received and had no issues generating notable viewership figures. However, that has changed with the third installment.
Enola Holmes 3 debuted to the franchise's lowest viewership, pulling in just 20.7 million views during its five-day opening week. The result confirms the end of an era for Brown and Netflix, as the partnership is no longer delivering the results both parties grew accustomed to, especially during each season of Stranger Things.
Millie Bobby Brown Movies Used To Be Huge Hits On Netflix
Following Stranger Things' success, Netflix moved quickly to get Brown signed on to make movies too, with 2020's Enola Holmes the first to come. When that movie came, Netflix celebrated it as a successful release, reporting that it reached 76 million households in its first four weeks and confirming plans for future adventures with Brown's sly detective.
By the time Enola Holmes 2 arrived two years later, Netflix had begun sharing weekly viewership data. The sequel was watched for 158 million hours during its four weeks, which equates to roughly 72.9 million views. Despite the slight dip in views, Netflix still viewed it as a clear hit; otherwise, they wouldn't have greenlit a third installment and other movies centered on Brown.
This instinct proved to be right in 2024, as her original fantasy film Damsel became one of Netflix's most-watched movies ever. Earning 138 million views during its first 91 days, the film became the biggest success story between Brown and the streamer outside of TV.
The results suggested that any Netflix movie with Brown would be a gigantic smash hit. That made sense when we were in the peak of Stranger Things' dominance and as subscribers had to wait long stretches between seasons. But the last two movies have proven success is not guaranteed.
Audiences Have Been Less Interested In Millie Bobby Brown's Movies Lately
Brown's first disappointment came in 2025 with the Russo brothers' sci-fi movie, The Electric State. It launched to 25.2 million views and fell out of the top 10 weekly charts after four weeks, accumulating only 59.1 million views. The first-week viewership was the lowest for one of the actress's movies, and the total viewership currently ranks last among her Netflix films.
Considering The Electric State's massive $320 million budget, it was a massive underperformance for Netflix. Brown is not responsible for the poor performance (the film's horrendous reviews and audience fatigue with others involved in the film were bigger culprits), but it showed that Netflix's subscribers won't watch anything just because the Eleven actress is in it.
Enola Holmes 3's viewership has now made that even clearer. The 20.7 million views are the lowest debut for one of Brown's movies based on official data. The sequel's divisive response does not inspire confidence that momentum will pick up in the weeks ahead either.
Enola Holmes 3 is certain to have the franchise's lowest viewership total. It is 30% behind Enola Holmes 2's pace after their opening weeks, despite having two more days to collect views. It could even fall to the bottom among Brown's films, as it's trailing The Electric State by 17.9% at the same point.
Some could point to Stranger Things season 5's divisive response as a reason for this, but that would only matter for Enola Holmes 3, which marks Brown's first Netflix project since the finale. The lower results traced back to The Electric State indicate that these are not the types of collaborations audiences want between a star and astreamer.
Millie Bobby Brown & Netflix Still Have A Bright Future Together
Thankfully, the future of this partnership could bring more success. Brown has several upcoming movies and shows, and many of them are set up at Netflix, allowing the actress to get back on track delivering major hits for the streaming service.
On the movie side, Just Picture It will be up first. The romantic comedy pairs her with Gabriel LaBelle (The Fabelmans) as college students who see photos from the future of them happily married. As an original rom-com with a fun premise and two talented young stars, Just Picture It can more so appeal to Brown's fans and a wider demographic of Netflix subscribers.
Brown is also slated to appear in a crime-thriller with Jason Bateman called The Girls I've Been. Based on the book by Tess Sharpe, the film adaptation holds strong potential to connect with viewers. Netflix's audience loves a good crime-thriller with a few twists and big stars, and The Girls I've Been can offer it all.
Getting back to starring in movies with big viewership totals will be nice, but Brown is also making sure to give Netflix users more of what they best know her from: TV shows. She's attached to exciting new series like the supernatural thriller Prism and an untitled espionage thriller from Adolescene co-creator and Enola Holmes writer Jack Thorne, where she'll reteam with David Harbour for a new father-daughter relationship after years of bringing Hopper and Eleven's bond to life.
With these different projects, as well as other in-development titles, the viewership decline Millie Bobby Brown is experiencing with Enola Holmes 3 could be a blip on the radar. The only difference is her next major hit can be labeled as a comeback rather than a continuation of years of nothing but success.
