In the Nielsen ratings for the week of October 4 through October 10, Black Widow became “free” to Disney
Still, in what’s arguably a downtime for streaming movies (Army of Thieves, The Harder They Fall and Red Notice should perk things up a bit along with Jungle Cruise and Shang-Chi becoming “free” on Disney+) the Marvel adventure was tops for the week. That translates to around five million viewings of the 133-minute actioner. The Guilty held very well in week two, with the Jake Gyllenhaal-led 9/11-responder thriller earning another 445 million minutes. Amusingly, the third-biggest movie of the week was James Cameron’s Titanic. The $2.2 billion-grossing Oscar-winning masterpiece earned 349 million minutes, meaning that as many as 1.8 million households revisited the 194-minute Kate Winslet/Leonardo DiCaprio melodrama. Oh, and Hocus Pocus logged 224 million minutes via Disney for obvious nostalgia-and-seasonal reasons.
Seinfeld, which debuted on Netflix the previous week, nabbed 590 million minutes in weekend two. The 32-year-old sitcom was hoping to be the next The Office or Friends in terms of an old show that today’s consumers binge-watch endlessly despite convenient cable television/network television syndication opportunities. We’ll see if that prophecy comes to pass, but 25% of the show’s audience was reportedly bourn after the show premiered. It should stick around regardless. Ironically, the show shouldn’t have a problem dealing with being tagged problematic since the protagonists were always selfish schmucks right from the start. Still, Seinfeld’s 166 episodes couldn’t top the 12 episodes of Cocomelon, which feels deeply representative in terms of perceptions of streaming versus actual results.
Speaking of which, Dave Chapelle’s The Closer brought a tsunami of bad press and finger-pointing directly at Netflix’s Ted Sarandos over allegations (I have not watched the show) that the stand-up special trafficked in transphobia. It was a brutal few weeks, one which exposed the lie that Netflix, which has absolutely been genuine about offering up copious films and shows from underrepresented voices, is any more of a “friend” than any other large-scale, profit-driven corporation. The special earned 399 million minutes, or about 5.5 million households watching the 72 minute special. That’s not nothing, especially if it sticks around, but it’s barely more minutes viewed than Titanic and less raw minutes than seven out of ten titles on this week’s acquired programs chart.
Meanwhile, Squid Game again exceeded 3 billion minutes for the second frame in a row, with Maid (a far less high-profile domestic drama) earned a superb 1.9 billion minutes. Ted Lasso earned another 507 million minutes on the week of its second-season finale, while Marvel’s What If? was nowhere to be found as it aired its first-season finale on Disney+. Nor did The Simpsons reprise after two weeks among the top ten of acquired programs, although Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building placed tenth among originals (248 million minutes) as the delightful Steve Martin/Martin Short/Selena Gomez mystery comedy aired its eighth of nine season one episodes. Next week’s charts will see the launch of You’s third season while Maya and the Three pops up after that.
