'Happy Gilmore 2' shoots up the charts, earns Netflix's biggest opening weekend numbers
Adam Sandler's big swing at Netflix has paid off.
"Happy Gilmore 2" snagged 91.9 million minutes watched in its first weekend, per Netflix's internal data. This amounts to 46.7 million views between July 25 and 27, according to the streamer's calculations.
This viewership gives Sandler's star-studded sequel bragging rights for having the biggest U.S. opening weekend of all time for a Netflix movie, a spokesperson for the streamer confirmed to Paste BN on July 30. "Happy Gilmore 2" is currently in the No. 1 position for movies streamed worldwide.
Variety was first to report the news.
In the sequel, co-written by Sandler, Happy has left golf behind after a tragic accident years ago. When he needs to raise $300,000 to send his daughter, Vienna (Sunny Sandler), to a prestigious ballet school in Paris, Happy hits the links again and runs into old pal Shooter McGavin.
Happy also teams up with the who's who of the PGA Tour – including Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa – to save traditional golf when an energy drink mogul (Benny Safdie) tries to popularize a more extreme version of the sport.
The number of cameos from stars like Bad Bunny (who was billed as Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio and had decent screen time to flex his acting chops), Eminem, Kid Cudi and Travis Kelce even shocked Julie Bowen, who plays Happy's wife, Virginia.
"The call sheet was coded. It did not have anybody's names on it and there were 135 different cast members," she told Paste BN. "I would see Polaroids in the hair and makeup trailer and I saw a person that no one's mentioned yet. And I'm like, 'When was he here?!' (They'd say) 'He's Newscaster No. 4.' And I'm like, 'Are you kidding me?'"
Christopher McDonald, who plays Happy's one-time nemesis Shooter, also found himself starstruck.
"I have known a few of these golf legends and legends-in-training. But seeing them one-on-one, it's like: 'Oh, my God, that's Rory McIlroy. That's Bryson DeChambeau. That's Scottie Scheffler.' It was mind-blowing for me," he told Paste BN. "And I came in on my days off just to hang out with them."
Contributing: Brian Truitt, Paste BN