‘The Kissing Booth‘ is the biggest hit you’ve never heard of.
Seven years ago, a Welsh teenager named Beth Reekles began posting a story on Toronto-based online storytelling community Wattpad.
Her success there got her a three-book deal with Random House in 2012.
UK-based Komixx Entertainment then hired Vince Marcello to write a screenplay; he would go on to direct the rom-com.
The Netflix Original The Kissing Booth debuted online worldwide on May 11, 2018.
Some measures of its success:
- Google Trends comparing The Kissing Booth and Netflix’s Cannes competitor Okja
- Joey King now has over 5 million Instagram followers
- Ted Sarandos calls it “one of the most-watched movies in the country, and maybe in the world,” as quoted by Josef Adalian.
My take: what I think is interesting about this story is that it starts and ends online, with stops in the real world in between. Oh, and by the way, I liked it!