'Parasite' Sets New Streaming Record For Hulu In Just One Week

Glory to the holy wi-fi that is fueling the people streaming Parasite on Hulu. It's thanks to those subscribers that watched Bong Joon-ho's Oscar-winning thriller that the movie set the all-time streaming records for most-watched independent or foreign language film on Hulu. It's just the latest accolade collected by Parasite – it won the Palme D'Or at Cannes last year and went on to take home four Oscars, including a historic Best Picture win.

Since its debut on Hulu last week, Bong Joon-ho's Parasite has already set the all-time record for most-streamed independent or foreign language film among all titles available on the streaming platform, according to IndieWire. Not only that, but Parasite is the second most-watched movie overall on Hulu — beating out major titles like A Quiet Place, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Transformers: The Last Knight, and Creed II, all of which have been streaming on Hulu for several months, in just one week.

It's unclear how many Hulu subscribers actually streamed Parasite, as Hulu didn't release numbers on its viewers. But the streaming platform went all-in with its celebration of Parasite's exclusive streaming debut on April 8, making three other Bong films available on its platform — the South Korean director's 2000 directorial debut Barking Dogs Never Bite, his global blockbuster hit The Host, and the criminally underrated Mother — and launching a social campaign that went viral last week for its snappy comebacks to trolls on social media who complained about the Korean-language film having subtitles. "If you don't want to read subtitles, you can always learn Korean!" the Hulu Twitter account quipped.

Parasite made its exclusive streaming debut on Hulu fresh off winning four top trophies at the 202o Academy Awards in February, including Best Picture — marking the first time in history a foreign-language film has won the award. The darkly comic thriller, which follows an impoverished family as they con their way into the employ of a wealthy family, enjoyed a banner year since it made its world premiere at Cannes in May 2019, racking up prestigious awards left and right and near-universal acclaim.

And Parasite's hot streak won't stop there. The film will make its debut on The Criterion Collection later this year, alongside Bong's crime drama Memories of Murder.