Netflix clearly knew it had something gloriously ridiculous on its hands with Thrash, and instead of playing it safe, the streamer went full chaos. The new shark-infested disaster movie has exploded straight out of the gate, debuting as Netflix’s No. 1 movie with 37.7 million views in its first tracking week. It’s the biggest film on the platform right now and has become one of the service’s strongest film launches of the year. That kind of start already would’ve been enough to make Thrash feel like a streaming event, but Netflix didn’t stop at the numbers. It built an entire shark-frenzy moment around the movie and basically turned the launch into its own mini-cultural phenomenon.

If you’re not informed on the sheer wonder that is Thrash, let us fill you in. Directed by Tommy Wirkola, Thrash stars Bridgerton breakout Phoebe Dynevor as Lisa, an expectant mother trapped in a flooded coastal town as a Category 5 hurricane brings rising water and hungry sharks at the worst possible moment. Yes, imagine being on the brink of giving birth, trapped on your way out of town, and stranded right in the path of a pack of bull sharks looking for their next meal.

The film also stars Whitney Peak and Djimon Hounsou, and Netflix pitched it in the simplest possible terms: if the storm doesn’t kill you, the sharks will. That’s the kind of hook that lands perfectly with viewers who want something fun, exciting, and thrilling that doesn’t ask audiences to overthink its premise. It begs the question: how would I survive a flooded town full of sharks while pregnant? We don’t know the answer to that, but it’s fun to think about.

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.

The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.

You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

When you have a movie that demands attention, Netflix churning the waters ahead of time primed *Thrash *for a blockbuster debut. The trailer arrived with a creepy spin on “Baby Shark,” and the streamer followed that with eye-catching stunt marketing that placed remote-controlled shark fins in waterways, including the Chicago River and the San Antonio River Walk, prompting enough confusion online that Instagram reportedly had to clarify the footage was not AI. That’s very good publicity, because it gets people asking who was crazy enough to do that?! And there are plenty of interesting social clips to watch. Top “viral” videos included **@kyliecreativity (TikTok - 11.6M views), @siempresantonio (Instagram Reels - 5.1M views), @offairjake (TikTok - 4.8M views), @stickaforkinme (Instagram Reels - 3.6M views), and @visitsanantonio (Instagram Reels - 3M views).

Netflix went above and beyond for Thrash, calling upon real sharks and researchers at the Bimini Shark Conservation Lab in The Bahamas to blend the film’s thrilling horror elements while raising awareness of climate change’s impact on humans and sharks alike. Sensing your shark cravings, Netflix has also dropped a new collection titled “Shaaark!” spotlighting titles like Jaws, Jaws 2, Jaws 3, Under Paris, Shark Whisperer, and All the Sharks. Between the chart-topping debut and the full-blown shark branding blitz, Thrash just swallowed Netflix whole.

*Thrash* is streaming on Netflix now.

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Adam McKay, Tommy Wirkola, Kevin J. Messick