The Marvel flick already helped juice the company’s earnings with its theatrical release, and now it’s poised to boost the streaming service, too
One sure-fire way to boost viewership? Add a major Marvel flick to your movie lineup. And that’s just what Disney+ did, with the streaming debut of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” pushing the service to the top of Whip Media’s weekly ranker of the most-streamed movies in the U.S., according to data based on followers of WhipMedia’s TV Time, its movie and TV show tracking app with more than 24 million global registered users.
“Wakanda Forever,” after hitting Disney+ on Feb. 1, bumped last week’s top movie, Netflix’s “You People,” down to second place. Its streaming debut came at a critical time for Disney+, too, with Disney reporting on Wednesday that its linchpin service lost 2.4 million customers in its December quarter. (Disney investors didn’t seem to sweat the subscriber losses too much, though, with Disney shares popping as much as 8% after the company reported its fiscal first quarter performance.)
It hasn’t been a red-hot start to 2023 for Disney+, with “Wakanda Forever” being the first Disney+ flick to top Whip Media’s ranker this year. Netflix and HBO Max movies led the rankings in each of the first five weeks of the year.
Top streaming movies, Feb. 3-5, U.S. (Whip Media)
The new streaming-movie rankings appear to support Disney’s announcement that “Wakanda Forever” was the most-watched Marvel premiere in Disney+ history based on hours streamed in its first five days on the service. Disney+, like the other major streamers, needs to keep releasing hits to keep viewers on its service and off of its competitors. “Wakanda Forever’s” streaming debut clearly helped it accomplish that goal.
Marvel’s core demographics are young Millennials, according to a Morning Consult survey, with a slight gender skew towards men. And 61% of the viewers who streamed “Wakanda Forever” in the last week were male, per Whip Media’s viewer data. In an encouraging sign, given Marvel’s weakness among Gen Z, fans also skewed younger, with 47% of streamers being under the age of 30, per Whip Media.
The films ranked No. 2 to No. 6, meanwhile, have been staples of the weekly rankings of late. They include Jennifer Lopez’s “Shotgun Wedding,” which claimed the bronze medal for the second straight week. “Teen Wolf: The Movie” remained a strong performer for Paramount+, with the horror-ish movie landing in the fifth spot after it closed last week at No. 2 overall.
One of the new movies to crack Whip Media’s top 10 was Pamela Anderson’s new Netflix documentary, “Pamela, A Love Story.” The in-depth look at the blonde bombshell had an interesting audience breakdown, with women accounting for nearly 76% of all views, per Whip Media; while the data isn’t available for shows she starred in back in the day, it’s probably safe to assume the audience for “Baywatch” and “V.I.P.” skewed a bit closer to 50-50 male-female.
“Pamela, A Love Story” helped Netflix grab bragging rights for the week with three entrants in total, more than any other streaming service. It’s also worth noting Showtime made the top 10 for the second straight week thanks to “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” (“Everything” pulling in 11 Oscar noms probably didn’t hurt viewership, either.) Peacock also made the ranker for the fourth week in a row, with “Violent Night” dropping one spot to ninth place.
Sean Burch is a marketing insights analyst at Whip Media, a WrapPRO partner. Click here for more from Whip Media.
Whip Media is a market-leading data provider and enterprise software platform. The company provides global consumer anticipation, viewership and engagement data and insights across all platforms for movies and television. This enables the world’s largest media and entertainment organizations to make more informed marketing, licensing, programming, and development decisions. For more information, visit www.whipmedia.com.
Whip Media
Whip Media is a market-leading data provider and enterprise software platform. The company provides global consumer anticipation, viewership and engagement data and insights across all platforms for movies and television. This enables the world’s largest media and entertainment organizations to make more informed marketing, licensing, programming, and development decisions. For more information, visit www.whipmedia.com.