NEW YORK — Netflix ended a strong second quarter with a total of 65.5 million members on its service, beating its own performance forecast.
Netflix had projected adding 2.5 million new customers in the second quarter, but instead boosted it by 3.3 million.That increase for the subscription video on demand company was up from the 1.7 million gain in the previous second quarter.
Much of the subscription growth came from overseas. More than 900,000 new subscribers were in the U.S. and 2.4 million came from foreign countries.Wall Street estimates were projecting 65.4 million subscribers for the service, which Netflix hit almost precisely with 65.5 million.
Netflix grew by more than 15 million from the 50 million members that it reported in the same quarter a year ago. The strong results sent Netflix rocketing up 10% in after hours trading on Wednesday. On Wall Street, there hasn’t been many stocks more red-hot than Netflix.
In June, the company announced plans for a seven-for-one stock split, which was just executed on Tuesday.
That means that Netflix is currently trading at about $100 per share, or one-seventh of the massive $700 price per share it was trading at just prior to the split. From a content perspective, Netflix has grabbed the spotlight of Hollywood in the past months by associating itself with some of the industry’s biggest stars and brands.
One such star was Brad Pitt. In June, the company announced that it acquired a film starring Pitt entitled “War Machine” that will open in a small number of theaters and on Netflix.
While the site has announced plans and partnerships in the past with others stars like Adam Sandler and Bill Murray, Pitt is arguably its largest move. And “War Machine” is one of their biggest features with a reported price tag in the $30 million range, according to Deadline.
Netflix fortified these moves earlier this month when it announced a schedule for its upcoming slate of original films, some of which will be released on both Netflix and in theaters.
The current growth and hot streak of Netflix has arguably galvanized other streaming service competitors like Hulu into making big acquisitions of its own.
For example, Hulu won the streaming sweepstakes to “Seinfeld,” one of the most popular TV shows of all time, in late April.
