Having arrived on Netflix with what Forbes determined was the lowest Rotten Tomatoes audience score (2%) ever for a show or movie garnering at least 5,000 rankings, four-part original miniseries Queen Cleopatra predictably tanked in its first five days on Netflix, capturing only 20.2 million viewing hours for the week of May 8-14.
Plying ancient Egyptian history to a faux documentary format, with Jada Pinkett Smith exec producing and serving as narrator, and African American actor Adele James cast in the title role, Queen Cleopatra arrived on Netflix having already been subject to a racially charged lawsuit in Egypt, the plaintiff charging Netflix and the producers with misrepresenting its historical subject matter.
