TikTok helped turn ‘Purple Heart’ into a Netflix hit

Netflix’s weekly top 10 features are often a hodgepodge of bland Netflix originals and slightly older movies that can be found at home with basic cable, but purple heartcurrently the most popular movie on Netflix, is an outlier.

purple heartA Netflix original, released on July 29, is a pro-military romance that revolves around an all-too-real marriage of convenience. The film tries to deal with too many subplots and relies on platitudes about liberals and the U.S. military, as well as propaganda and superficial commentary on the terrible state of the American healthcare system. Over the past few weeks, however, the film has become a bona fide TikTok hit thanks to earnest posts celebrating the romantic relationship between its protagonists.

On Tuesday, Netflix reported that subscribers watched purple heart 102.59 million hours; by comparison, the second-ranked film of the week, grey man, watched 38.9 million hours. Although ratings for many originals (or Netflix’s versions) tend to drop over the next few weeks, purple heart‘After the first week of Netflix’s launch, viewership more than doubled (48.23 million hours watched). According to the latest news on Netflix, the film has been watched 150.82 million hours to date and has the potential to become one of the 10 most-watched English-language films of all time on Netflix.

But the bigger success story purple heart— and possibly a source of its meteoric growth — is on TikTok, where videos using the hashtag #PurpleHearts have been viewed more than 1.3 billion times to date. (#CorazonesMalheridos, the film’s Spanish title, which translates to “Broken Heart,” garnered an additional 218.8 million views). “Come Back Home,” a song written and performed by Carson’s character that helped inspire the Marines character, is featured in several videos.

@jrdgold #fyp #jrdgold #purplehearts #sofiacarson #nicholasgalitzine #corazonesmalheridos #purpleheartsnetflix #carsoutside #netflix ♬ sonido original – brutal

@khim_ in reply to @bernaclarito this is part 2 #purpleheart #purplehearts #cassie #luke #movie #drama ♬ Ikaw Lang (AD BEAT version) – AD BEAT

@_secondself #purplehearts ♬ Can’t help falling in love – Haley Reinhart

While some of the videos highlight some of the more problematic aspects of the film — and there are many of them throughout the film’s 2-hour runtime — many more ironically gush about Cassie (Sofia Carson) and Luke (Nicholas Galitzine), an unlikely couple at the heart of the film purple heart. They put the characters together, highlight specific moments they think are romantic, and even call for a sequel.

Several of the film’s stars even got involved in the TikTok action by duet with fan videos to gain insight into their performances or to relate to certain scenes.

@nicholasgalitzine #duet with @CHLMTSWIFE #purplehearts ♬ original sound – CHLMTSWIFE

@breanaraquel #duet and @Josie #purplehearts #greenscreen Why is this edit so good? Made me cry too :(( Thank you for all the love you have for Purple Hearts!! Thank you so much to all of you 💜 #purplehearts #purpleheartsnetflix @chosenjacobs ♬ Soundtrack – Josie

purple heartAdapted from Tess Wakefield’s 2017 novel, it uses several romantic touchstones: fake relationships, marriages of expediency, relationships disguised as real, and even love confessions that race against the clock. We are introduced to Cassie, an aspiring songwriter and musician who works multiple jobs to make ends meet and is mired in medical debt because her insurance cannot pay for the insulin she needs for her recent diagnosis of type 1 diabetes, and Luke, a recovering addict, is about to head to Iraq for a third-generation Marine. They initially clashed during their first meeting at the bar, where both had brief conversations under assumptions about each other, and it felt like it had a final GIF or brand account meme in mind. But since Cassie craves the health benefits offered by being a military spouse, and Luke craves a married soldier’s perks to pay off his former drug dealer, they agree to marry.

They were committing fraud, Luke told her when she initially proposed to a friend for health benefits, a fact that the Marines found out could lead to court martial and jail time. So, after they said “I do”, Cassie and Luke had to pretend they were madly in love to convince everyone that their marriage was real.

If you’re a romance fan, you can more or less guess where this story is going, and purple heart Dutifully played many hits. But it’s also a bland account of what the columnist sees as talking points for liberals and conservatives on everything from immigration (due to Cassie’s mom’s old status as an undocumented immigrant) and guns to war and the role the military plays in America, which Most are handled with the blunt part of an axe. (In an early scene, after Cassie objected to one of Luke’s comrades for “hunting down some damn Arabs” and explained that Arabs were a race, he sarcastically thanked her for her “sensitivity training”, then asked Whether the Marines are going to go to Iraq to teach Iraqis pronouns. Cassie is blamed for lowering moods before they ship.) But Cassie’s stance is often softened, and Luke sarcastically uses “snowflakes” and “snowflakes” Liberty Nuts “those two phrases” to describe Cassie, even as they grow closer.

Netflix is ​​already home to wildly successful romances, including virgin river, bridgetoneven serious sexism so when purple heart It might not immediately be one of Netflix’s biggest hits, which in hindsight is self-evident.

On TikTok, it’s easy to avoid some sexist, racist, and pro-military conversations purple heart Luke’s involvement in the drug dealer plot bogged down parts of the film. In smaller sound clips and fan edits – which have long been an integral part of shipping – you can sell Cassie and Luke’s love story as an epic full of gestures big and small, finally realizing Two people who make no sense on paper are actually perfect for each other.Although those moments do occur in purple heart, they appear among other elements that hinder romance and a lot of publicity. In smaller doses and with little context, you can edit it out.