Can Bird Box Barcelona really recapture Netflix’s Bird Box magic?

polygon.com:

Netflix is bringing back its Bird Box franchise. The series that helped cement the streamer’s original movies as important pop culture touchstones is back with the new trailer for Bird Box Barcelona. But while the first movie was an unprecedented hit, there’s no guarantee Netflix can recapture that same energy for a sequel.

In many ways, Bird Box kicked off the streaming era as we know it. The movie’s release in 2018 received middling reviews, but a ton of interest from Netflix subscribers and an avalanche of memes helped propel the Sandra Bullock movie to becoming the most watched Netflix original movie ever — and it’s still in the top three. More than arguably any other movie before it, it proved a streaming service’s original movie could be a massive hit.

For those who don’t remember (statistically speaking, the odds are pretty good you watched this movie), Bird Box follows Malorie (Bullock), a woman living in a post-apocalyptic world where strange creatures cause anyone who sees them to lose their minds and attempt to die in the most immediately available way possible — or in some cases, try to make other people look at the creatures instead.

It’s exactly the kind of premise that lent itself to massive twists as well as some genuinely creepy moments — though not necessarily a good movie. But director Susanne Bier managed to keep tension high enough to both grab viewers early and keep them from getting too distracted; in other words, Netflix’s winning combo.

The consistent excitement helped the movie generate impressive word of mouth buzz after its December 2018 release and let it grow throughout January 2019 into a viral sensation. Of course, it was also helped by a mountain of memes that largely circulated on