‘Wish’ Finds Second Life on Disney Streaming
Disney needed six months longer than expected, but it finally gained some good news with Wish.
The 2023 box office debacle debuted on Disney+ a month ago, and we just learned it was a massive success.
Wish has found second life on streaming. Let’s talk about what we know.
Wish’s First Act
When Wish debuted in theaters last November, I gave it a positive but tepid review.
As I left the theater, my overriding thought was that it was a good animated movie, but it wasn’t Disney-level good.
Over time, my appreciation grew a bit due in large part to two elements.
One is the character of Star, whom I wholeheartedly adore. Kawaii doesn’t come any cuter than this character.
At the time, I joked that I’d buy all the Star merchandise I could, and I’ve honored that promise. My Star count has reached double digits.
Similarly, I thought Chris Pine was nothing short of a revelation as Magnifico, the King of Rosas.
Disney hasn’t had a classic archetypal villain in a while, choosing more comedic characters for the most part.
Magnifico tries to hurt my beloved Star and for that, I wish nine misfortunes upon him.
Anyway, the theatrical reception to Wish was so icy you might have wondered whether Elsa was involved.
The film earned only $255 million against a $200 million budget.
Since movies need to earn (at least) 2.5 times their budget to be profitable, Wish only earned half of what it needed in theaters.
That’s the magic of streaming, though. Films can find a second life on services like Disney+.
In fact, the popularity of the idea has caused financial problems for Disney.
During the pandemic, the company accidentally trained its customers to wait until a movie arrived on streaming to watch it.
Wish’s Second Act
CEO Bob Iger has lamented this truth and prioritized enticing guests back to theaters.
That tactic certainly didn’t work with Wish, which failed to attract an audience and opened to a modest $31 million in five days.
More troubling is the fact that Wish only earned another $33 million during its North American theatrical run.
That terrible start was actually Wish’s best box office performance!
Since then, Disney officials have reevaluated the film and tried to market it a bit more effectively on Disney+.
While we won’t know for another few weeks how successful the attempt was, it at least helped Wish’s streaming debut.
For the week of April 1st through April 7th, Wish earned more than one billion viewer minutes, the tell-tale sign of a strong debut.
While Wish didn’t quite usurp Bluey as the most-watched program on Disney+, the latest Disney animated film did something impressive.
Wish was the most-watched title on Nielsen’s Movies chart for the week and the number four streaming program overall.
The only titles with more viewing time were Bluey (natch), The Resident, and Grey’s Anatomy.
So, there’s an even bigger story for Disney here, but I’ll save it for the next section.
For the moment, let’s continue with Wish, which has somehow enjoyed a better first week than Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.
That’s not quite an apples-to-apples comparison since Wish had 1.5 more days that counted on the Nielsen charts.
However, when you calculate their daily performance, Wish actually finishes slightly ahead, something I did NOT expect to say.
In short, Disney officials have to be happy about Wish’s start.
How well the film holds over the next month is what matters, though.
Are we about to witness another Elemental or *gulp* The Marvels?
Disney’s Other Streaming Hits
Let’s get Bluey out of the way, as it’s a bigger story next week than now.
The beloved children’s program earned 1.079 billion viewer minutes, which is a nice bounce back from last week.
Bluey remains the most watched streaming program of 2024, and that statement definitely won’t change over the next month.
On the Nielsen streaming charts, two new episodes will start counting over the next three weeks.
For Disney, the bigger story is how it shares streaming rights on Grey’s Anatomy and The Resident through Hulu.
Yes, Netflix is the other service and likely claims the lion’s share of the viewing, but Disney still gets credit as well.
So, for the first time I can ever recall, Disney streaming services gained the top four spots on the Nielsen streaming charts for the week.
The Big Four here is (in order) The Resident (1.18 billion), Grey’s Anatomy (1.14 billion), Bluey, and Wish.
That’s an absolutely massive performance for Disney and one it’ll be unlikely to duplicate regularly over the next few years.
Netflix is the industry alpha, so it typically holds down most of the top five spots on streaming overall.
Disney’s success didn’t stop there, either. Shogun on Hulu managed another 434 million viewer minutes with three episodes remaining at this point.
Finally, the Acquired top ten is Hulu-dominant. Here are the titles that charted this week:
- Family Guy – 893 million viewer minutes
- Bob’s Burgers – 663 million viewer minutes
- 9-1-1 – 646 million viewer minutes
- Law & Order: SVU – 636 million viewer minutes
- The Rookie — 630 million viewer minutes
In short, Acquired is almost entirely Disney content, and it underscores that Hulu was doing night and day better than Nielsen had previously indicated.
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