Crowds Flock to Museum of Innocence Ahead of Netflix Premiere

Crowds flock to Museum of Innocence ahead of Netflix premiere

ISTANBUL — Interest in Istanbul’s iconic literary museum has surged just days before the release of its long-awaited screen adaptation.

Located on a cobbled street in Çukurcuma — a neighborhood famous for antique shops on the European side of Istanbul — the red-painted house that hosts the Museum of Innocence brings to life the world created by Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk in his bestselling novel The Museum of Innocence.

Inside, visitors encounter one of the most striking installations: a wall displaying 4,213 cigarette butts, carefully preserved by the novel’s protagonist, Kemal Basmacı. Lipstick-stained or angrily extinguished, each object reflects the obsessive love story at the heart of the book.

Opened by Pamuk in 2012, the museum mirrors the novel’s 83 chapters with 83 curated display cases. Jewelry, photographs, cinema tickets, and bottles of Meltem soda recreate the atmosphere of 1970s Istanbul and a romance that slowly turns into fixation.

Visitor numbers double

Anticipation has intensified ahead of the nine-episode Netflix adaptation, released on February 13. Since promotional trailers began airing, daily visitor numbers have reportedly climbed from around 200 to nearly 500.

📈 Daily visitors double from 200 to 500 ahead of Netflix premiere.

The series, produced by Istanbul-based Ay Yapım, stars Selahattin Paşalı as Kemal and Eylül Kandemir as Füsun, under the direction of Zeynep Günay.

Set in the 1970s, the story follows a wealthy young man devastated by the loss of his distant cousin and lover, leading him to collect objects connected to her memory over eight years.

Pamuk’s fight for creative control

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Pamuk revealed that bringing the novel to the screen was a long and complex process. After parting ways with an unnamed Hollywood company over creative differences — and regaining the rights in 2022 — the author partnered with Ay Yapım, remaining closely involved throughout a four-year script development process.

✍️ Pamuk's demands: declined advance payments, refused to sign until script approval, insisted museum be credited, and blocked a second season.

Pamuk reportedly declined advance payments and refused to sign contracts until the screenplay met his expectations. He also insisted that the museum itself be credited alongside the novel and that no second season be produced, regardless of the show’s commercial success.

🌍 Book translated into 60+ languages · Türkiye is world's 3rd largest TV series exporter (after US & UK).

With the book translated into more than 60 languages, the digital adaptation is expected to further strengthen its global reach — and once again highlight Türkiye’s fast-growing television industry, now the world’s third-largest exporter of TV series after the United States and the United Kingdom.

Fiction and reality intertwine

As streaming audiences discover the story on screen, many are choosing to experience it in person — walking the same narrow streets and stepping inside the house where fiction and reality intertwine.

⚠️ No second season — Pamuk's ironclad contract ensures the story remains a single, complete adaptation.

Source: The New York Times, Netflix, Ay Yapım · 14 February 2026