‘Doctor Strange 2’ And ‘Sing 2’ Prove That Box Office Success Helps Boost Streaming Ratings

In Nielsen updates, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness debuted on Disney+ with a whopping 1.43 billion minutes viewed for the week of June 20. That translates to roughly 11.5 million viewings of Sam Raimi’s 126-minute MCU sequel. That’s also the second biggest “opening” for a movie in all of 2022 behind Walt Disney’s Turning Red which nabbed 1.7 billion minutes in mid-March. That translates to around 18 million viewings of Pixar’s 100-minute coming-of-age fantasy. Slight digression, but Ryan Reynolds’ Netflix-specific The Adam Project earned 1.33 billion minutes on that same weekend. While Turning Red skipped theaters (in most territories) in favor of a Disney+ premiere, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness got a 45-day exclusive theatrical run where it has made $411 million domestic and $955 million worldwide.

That is, I’ll remind you, Marvel’s third biggest “no Iron Man” and “no Spider-Man” MCU flick ever behind Black Panther ($1.346 billion) and Captain Marvel ($1.128 billion including $154 million from China and $20 million from Russia). And now, the Benedict Cumberbatch/Elizabeth Olsen flick has captured the second-biggest movie launch on any streaming platform (at least by Nielsen’s measurements) in all of 2022. It’s between a Netflix-only smash hit (which eventually became their fourth most-watched film globally) and a Pixar movie that skipped theaters entirely. Since HBO Max has only recently begun releasing their Nielsen data, it’s possible that The Batman also debuted with similar initial figures. But, since the Robert Pattinson/Zoë Kravitz actioner first made $370 million domestic and $770 million global, that would further the point.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings earned $225 million domestic (second only to Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021) and $435 million global (behind only Venom 2 and Spider-Man 3 version 2.0 among Hollywood biggies last year). It then scored 1.072 billion minutes in its Disney+ launch. Free Guy earned $126 million/$332 million last summer, huge for a star-driven, high-concept original, and still pulled 1.025 billion minutes on Disney+ plus whatever it earned concurrently on HBO Max. Illumination’s Sing 2 was the second-biggest film on the week of June 20, with 1.267 billion minutes (the fourth-biggest debut of 2022, around 11.5 million complete viewings) on Netflix. That follows a $161 million domestic/$405 million worldwide theatrical run despite existing concurrently on PVOD for most if its theatrical run.

Even strong Disney+ originals like Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers essentially bombed (481 million minutes, or about 4.9 million complete viewings) on the platform. Thus far, none of Hulu’s 20th Century Studios or Searchlight Pictures films have broken out. We’ll get Nielsen data on The Princess next week, and I’m expecting the more high-profile Prey (a buzzy period piece prequel to Predator) to make some noise on August 5. I’d wager Prey’s streaming figures would be at least as strong following a theatrical performance on par with most Predator sequels ($127 million-$172 million worldwide). Concurrently, HBO Max’s (pretty good) Father of the Bride remake “set records for an HBO Max-exclusive movie,” which didn’t translate to Nielsen glory. It’s little wonder Magic Mike’s Last Dance may end up in theaters after all.

The Batman performed so well on HBO Max after kicking box office butt that David Zsaslov pointedly recommitted to the notion of WB releasing 20-25 theatrical films per year. Meanwhile, Top Gun: Maverick’s absurd theatrical success ($1.25 billion and counting) has made the original Top Gun a streaming/VOD hit. It will undoubtedly result in bonkers streaming viewership for Paramount+, to say nothing of the gazillion DVDs and Blu-rays purchased by older audiences who helped make the Tom Cruise flick into a smash. It’s not just the blockbusters. Michael Bay’s terrific Ambulance bombed in theaters ($51 million worldwide on a $40 million budget) but performed at least well enough on PVOD and eventually on Peacock for Universal to sign a first-look deal with Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes production company.

The publicity of a theatrical release, even for a box office bomb, can help that film excel in post-theatrical. Whether shorter windows hurt theatrical revenue, and so far, audiences either don’t know or care about the swifter “theaters to streaming” pipeline, we’re seeing regular evidence that a blockbuster theatrical run only helps the film’s eventual streaming fate. Nurturing a theatrical release (even with a flop like Death on the Nile) will *help* in the overall goal of prioritizing streamers. It’s not a one-to-one situation. It’s much more expensive to market a film for theaters than for streaming. I cannot presume that every good streaming flick otherwise would have been a theatrical hit. However, even Netflix may soon understand that if theatrical and streaming don’t learn to live together, they are going to both die alone.