Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’ Trailer Crushes ‘Barbie’ in Record First-Week Views, but Fans Are Divided

When Greta Gerwig’s last film opened, it turned a toy doll into a cultural event. ‘Barbie’ grossed more than $1.4 billion and earned a Best Picture nomination, which set the bar impossibly high for whatever came next. Her follow-up is a very different challenge: adapting one of the most beloved fantasy series ever written.

That follow-up is ‘Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew’, Netflix’s adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s prequel and one of the streamer’s most expensive projects, with a reported budget of $280 million. Netflix is giving it a wide theatrical release on February 12, with IMAX sneak previews beginning two days earlier and a streaming debut on April 2. For a company built around the living room, that’s a major reversal.

Now the first numbers are in. The trailer for ‘Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew’ drew more than 481.3 million views in its first seven days, according to WaveMetrix data surfaced after Netflix’s earnings call. That’s roughly double the 240 million views the ‘Barbie’ trailer collected in the same period.

It also beat other big names. ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ drew 281.6 million views in its first week, and ‘Wonka’ drew 237.2 million. ‘Project Hail Mary’ hit 400 million in its first week, so the new trailer sits at the top of that comparison.

The reach went beyond YouTube. The trailer trended at No. 1 on X and remained the top trending movie trailer on YouTube, and the official NarniaFilm.com site briefly crashed under the traffic. The spike even lifted the books, with ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ climbing to No. 3 in the Children’s Classics category of Amazon’s Kindle Store.

Gerwig unveiled the trailer on October 13 at an IMAX event at the AMC Lincoln Center in New York, where she spoke with Stephen Colbert about her ‘Barbie’ follow-up. It’s scored by Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’, which was reported to be the first time the band has granted a sync license for the song to a film or trailer. That alone helped make the footage feel like an event.

The trailer teases a psychedelic, rock ‘n’ roll take on Lewis’s creation story. Daniel Craig plays Uncle Andrew, David McKenna and Beatrice Campbell play Digory and Polly, and Emma Mackey is the White Witch. The cast also includes Carey Mulligan, Ciarán Hinds and Meryl Streep, who voices Aslan, while Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt are composing the score.

A Universe Begins. See how Narnia was created in Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, a film by Greta Gerwig – only in theaters February 12. https://t.co/jwxksCL0N7

— Netflix (@netflix) October 13, 2026

Big numbers don’t guarantee big affection, and reaction has been split. Some viewers said the trailer exceeded expectations and called it one of the best in years, and the creation of Narnia itself was a widely praised moment. Others pushed back on the colorful, CGI-heavy visuals, with some comparing the look to a Marvel movie.

A poll of more than 4,000 respondents on NarniaWeb’s social media found 46% more optimistic about the film after the trailer and 35% less optimistic. On Gerwig’s creative direction, 40% had mixed feelings, 32% disliked it and 28% liked it. That’s a notable gap between how many people are watching and how many are convinced.

It’s also worth remembering that trailer views are not a straight prediction of box office. One outlet noted that trailer metrics aren’t always a one-to-one indicator, though beating titles like ‘Barbie’ and ‘Wonka’ does suggest Netflix’s costly investment is generating attention. Whether that attention converts into ticket sales is a different question.

For Netflix, the stakes go beyond one movie. The film is the first Netflix release to get a full wide theatrical window of more than six weeks before it streams, and Gerwig has said the date was pushed from November into 2027 to allow a global theatrical release. A strong opening would give the studio a template for future big-screen bets.

The early signs are promising, even if the debate over the film’s look continues. With the release still months away, the conversation is only beginning.

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