Riding the theaters-to-streaming wave is paying off in multiple ways for NBCUniversal as it dominates the latest movie rankings
They might as well pour champagne and pass out victory cigars at 30 Rock, because Peacock just had its best streaming week ever for movies. The NBCUniversal streamer’s success stemmed largely from success at the box office, giving more weight to the theaters-to-streaming trend that’s seeing cinematic exposure as key to driving viewership online.
Peacock topped Whip Media’s movie ranker for Friday through Sunday, thanks to the streaming debut of “Knock at the Cabin.” But the service also accounted for six of the top 10 most-streamed movies in the U.S. over the past weekend, according to Whip Media’s rankings, which it compiles using viewership data from TV Time, its TV and movie tracking app with more than 25 million global registered users.
Peacock’s big weekend started with M. Night Shyamalan’s latest horror-thriller, which drove viewership following a decent run at the box office this year. Interestingly, the streaming demo for “Knock at the Cabin” varied considerably from another horror-thriller that’s been a hit for Peacock, “M3GAN.”
While both movies lean slightly towards male viewers (51% for “M3GAN” and 53% for “Knock”), “Knock at the Cabin” attracted a more mature streaming crowd, with 53.5% of its viewers being 40 or older, according to Whip Media’s viewership data. More than 60% of “M3GAN” streamers, on the other hand, were under the age of 40. (“M3GAN” stayed on Whip Media’s top 10 for the fifth consecutive week, landing in eighth place.)
The other box-office-driven factor that really helped Peacock was the theatrical release of “John Wick 4.” Fans were clearly ready for Keanu and Co. to return, because they ate up the previous movies in the franchise, whose streaming rights NBCUniversal locked up in a deal with Lionsgate. The first three “Wick” flicks grabbed the second, third and fourth spots on Whip Media’s ranker. Young fans in particular flocked to the “Wick” movies last weekend. The 2014 debut film saw 25% of its viewers between the ages of 18-24, more than any other age cohort, according to Whip Media’s viewership data.
The final Peacock movie to make the ranker was “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” which has been another strong performer for the service the past few weeks — also following a standout global box office.
Top streaming movies, March 24-26, U.S. (Whip Media)
Here’s another way to look at how big of a weekend for Peacock it was: Before the past weekend, the service had appeared in Whip Media’s weekly movie ranker 11 times since the start of 2023. After its six-pack performance, Peacock finished the first quarter with 17 appearances.
There wasn’t much room for movies that didn’t stream on Peacock, but Showtime continued to benefit from Oscar winner “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which came in at No. 5. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” remained a ranker mainstay, too, landing the sixth spot for Disney+. That marked its eighth straight week in the top 10 — not too shabby. And Netflix held on to two spots, with Idris Elba’s “Luther: The Fallen Sun” coming in seventh place, while “We Have a Ghost” rounded out the top 10.
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.