Disney’s Animayhem Plan Is Stunningly Successful
Disney’s Animayhem streaming strategy once again paid dividends on the Nielsen charts.
In combination with Disney’s modified theatrical strategy, everything the company touches seems to turn to gold right now.
Photo: Hulu
Let’s discuss Futurama as it re-enters the streaming charts. And we’ll throw in some additional Animayhem talk for good measure.
Disney Entertainment is running hot right now, y’all.
“Good News, Everyone”
I realize that whenever I say, “Good news, everyone!” it’s the most predictable thing imaginable for a Futurama story.
But I say it anyway. That’s because 1) Futurama is my favorite series ever and 2) the Hulu updates are always good news.
Image: Futurama
The week of July 29th through August 4th was no exception, as Disney’s reliance on animation proved successful yet again.
For the week in question, Futurama earned 320 million viewer minutes, which was good enough for seventh place in Originals.
Image: Hulu
That’s noteworthy in and of itself, but the impressive part is the value Futurama provides.
In terms of bang for the buck, animation programming is typically among the cheapest content networks can produce.
While Disney hasn’t confirmed episode costs for the new seasons of Futurama, industry speculation suggests $1-$1.5 million each.
So, for the current ten-episode order for season 12, Disney would have spent $10-$15 million in total.
Photo: Lucasfilm
Let’s just estimate high and say that it was $20 million for those ten episodes.
Now, consider that Futurama earned roughly as many viewer minutes for its two new episodes of season 12 as The Acolyte did for its series finale.
Photo: Lucasfilm
As a reminder, the Star Wars series cost $180 million to produce, which breaks down as $22.5 million per episode.
Those two episodes of Futurama are roughly the same length as a single episode of The Acolyte.
(L-R): Olega Master (Nick Court), Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen), Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) and Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
We can do some math here and determine that Disney got as much bang for the buck for $2-4 million on Futurama as $22.5 million on The Acolyte.
Overall, the entire new season of Futurama will cost less than a SINGLE episode of The Acolyte.
Photo: Lucasfilm
These statistics alone underscores why Disney executives love animation so much.
More Animayhem
Hulu
In fact, if you pull up Disney+ right now and perform a search, you’ll notice the FIRST recommendation is the Hulu Animayhem Collection.
Hulu highlights that subscribers can stream Futurama, Family Guy, Solar Opposites, Hit-Monkey, Bob’s Burgers, Rick & Morty, and King of the Hill.
Credit: Freeform
That’s just the first batch of results in a section six rows long. Not coincidentally, King of the Hill is also rebooting soon.
For that matter, Cartoon Network is airing a new anime version of Rick & Morty as we speak.
Families Streaming Disney+
Why is there the sudden gold rush on animated programming? Well, it’s the reason we just covered.
Still, some of us get a fair of shock as we watch this unfold. For many years, Fox canceled or nearly canceled several such series.
FOX
I mean, Fox DID cancel Family Guy early in the show’s run, only to bring it back after it excelled on DVD.
A Mistake Later Corrected
Wall Street Journal
For the week in question, Family Guy finished in fourth place on the Acquired chart with 913 million viewer minutes.
The sustained success of Family Guy speaks to the sheer stupidity of many of Fox’s executives during the early 2000s, the ones who canceled it.
Photo: Disney
Notably, two of the shows that beat it, Bluey and Grey’s Anatomy, are also available on Disney streaming services.
Bluey finished second overall for the week with 1.168 billion viewer minutes, trailing only the season finale of House of the Dragon, which George R.R. Martin apparently hated.
Image Credit: ABC
I knew he was a Bandit fan! Anyway, Grey’s claimed 933 million minutes.
So, Bluey surpassed and Family Guy effectively matched the most popular serial drama of the past quarter-century.
Photo: Bluey
That statement alone tells you everything you need to know about the soaring popularity of adult animation.
Disney loves this content for several reasons. Most importantly, it’s bingeable.
(Photo by Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP) (Photo credit should read TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP via Getty Images)
We typically leave a show like Futurama or Archer on in the background while we’re working, reading, or playing video games.
Then, we have the inexpensive nature of the contract, which explains why John DiMaggio, the voice of Bender, briefly held out.
Even the voice actors for most shows don’t earn much, a statement I don’t love, but businesses do. (Pay Bender!!!)
Finally, we have the fact that Disney’s roots are in animation. So, a century later, it’s lovely for this content to remain popular.
Disney’s Other Hits
Photo: Disney
I know you probably tuned me out once you heard the Bluey numbers for the week.
So, let’s quickly glance at Disney’s other streaming hits, one of which is another Animayhem title.
As usual, Bob’s Burgers placed in the top ten for Acquired with 734 million minutes for the week.
Criminal Minds also remained consistent with another 745 million minutes.
Criminal Minds
A surprise entrant beat both of them, though Prison Break entered the streaming charts in fifth place on Acquired.
The long-running Fox series streams on Hulu now and claimed 758 million minutes.
Photo: Variety
On Originals, Hulu had two other entries, including The Bear, which fell to 276 million minutes.
This one is probably about to fall from the charts until it picks up again around awards season.
Photo: Disney+
Hulu also streams Love Island, which garnered 576 million viewer minutes and actually finished second in Originals for the week.
This was an overall weak top ten on Originals. Otherwise, Love Island wouldn’t have finished as high, while The Bear wouldn’t have placed.
Photo: Also 20th Century Studios
Finally, on the Movies chart, Hulu had another blockbuster, with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes excelling.
The film debuted on streaming with a solid 560 million viewer minutes.
Disney+
That’s very good, but we won’t know about its long-term appeal until next week. As proof, Descendants: The Rise of Red fell off the charts.
However, something “new” debuted. Yes, people pre-gamed Deadpool & Wolverine by watching 233 million minutes of Deadpool!
Photo: Disney
Yes, Deadpool is somehow a blockbuster hit on Disney+. We’re through the looking glass here, people.
Finally, Moana earned its usual 240 million minutes. And those numbers will go up, not down, as Moana 2 approaches.
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