Wonder Woman 1984, which debuted on HBO Max on Christmas Day at the same time it hit theaters, led Nielsen’s updated streaming chart the week of December 21-27.
Nielsen hasn’t officially started measuring WarnerMedia’s streaming service, but it did provide a review of last week’s regular ratings, saying WW84 accumulated 2.252 billion minutes of streaming. That was 35% better than Pixar’s Soul, which attracted nearly 1.7 billion minutes on Disney +. It was also 85% ahead of the hot red Bridgerton, which Netflix has anointed this week as its most broadcast original show.
Runtime should not be overlooked as a factor. WW84 is 2 hours and 35 minutes, more than 45 minutes more than Soul.
In the revised chart, five of the top ten weekly entries were films, a division reflecting the direction of content distribution, as Covid-19 maintains cinemas closed in LA, New York and many other markets. WarnerMedia plans to launch the entire Warner Bros. slate 2021 on HBO Max in parallel with theaters. Determining what exactly the great start of streaming means for the film’s economic performance is an almost impossible task. The global box office is approaching $ 150 million, but has declined rapidly, unsurprisingly, given the many territories still struggling with Covid outbreaks.
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AT&T, controller of WarnerMedia, said earlier this week that HBO Max’s activations doubled in the fourth quarter to 17.2 million, an increase that it credits in part to the launch of the WW84. The company did not release any of its own audience data on the film.
In a statement provided by Nielsen, HBO Max EVP and GM Andy Forssell called the launch “a great Christmas gift for the consumer when he wanted and needed it.”
Nielsen’s ratings only track streaming through a TV set, excluding mobile streams, and data is released after a long delay according to the services being measured. HBO Max is only operational in the United States at this time, but will expand to Latin America and parts of Europe later this year. So far, Nielsen measures only Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Disney +, but the company has indicated that it will soon officially add HBO Max and NBCUniversal’s Peacock to its regular rotation.
Here is the revised Nielsen weekly streaming chart in the U.S.:
Wonder Woman 1984 (HBO Max, film, total 2.3 billion minutes)
Soul (Disney +, movie, 1.7B min.)
The office (Netflix, 192 episodes, 1.4B min.)
Bridgerton (Netflix, 8 eps., 1.2B min.)
The midnight sky (Netflix, movie, 1.1B min.)
The Mandalorian (Disney +, 16 eps., 1B min.)
How Grinch Stole Christmas (Netflix, movie, 705M min.)
The crown (40 eps., 700M min.)
Grey’s Anatomy (Netflix, 366 eps., 691M min.)
Christmas Chronicles 2 (Netflix, movie, 660M min.)