Disney Had a Ho-Hum December on Streaming
Disney had hoped for a holiday full of Ho-ho-hos. Instead, Disney had a ho-hum December on streaming.
Let’s quickly sift through three weeks of Nielsen streaming charts to figure out what happened.
About the Holidays


Wall Street Journal
Nielsen, like much of Hollywood, takes the holiday season off, and I commend them for that.
Still, this decision leads to some chaos when it comes to posting its weekly charts.


Photographer: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
For reasons passing understanding, Nielsen already delays streaming ratings by a month.
A recent deal with Netflix may open the door to their changing that practice, but it’s the norm for now.


Photo: Netflix
On top of that, Nielsen fell a bit behind this time, which led to the oddity of posting three weeks’ worth of charts in five days.
Billboard never does any of this nonsense, which is why everyone prefers Billboard.


Photo:cnet.com
Anyway, here we are in mid-January, talking about the streaming charts for the weeks of December 2nd, December 9th, and December 16th.
Yes, that’s weird, and even though I have no control over it, I apologize.


Photo Credit: AP Photo/Richard Drew, File
So, I’m going to skip over the usual big-picture stuff and simply run through three different sets of charts.
As the title implies, this wasn’t a particularly good month for Disney, which is a bit unexpected.


Image: The Wall Street Journal
The company’s streaming titles on Hulu and Disney+ performed better in October and November than in December, at least according to the charts.
Let’s discuss this bit of weirdness while acknowledging that Disney’s still in MUCH better shape than a year ago at this time.
The Missing Star Wars Series


Families Streaming Disney+
The first thing we should acknowledge is that Disney took a goose egg on the Originals chart.
I don’t just mean for the week of December 2nd – December 8th, either. Disney got shut out in Originals during all three weeks.


Photo: Disney
Goosebumps is now airing and should change that, but it’s still notable for a specific reason.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, a concept best described as the Goonies Meet the Force, didn’t appear on the charts.


(L-R): The Stranger (Manny Jacinto) and Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
That’s worrisome for two reasons. The first is that it continues the Disney+ losing streak for Star Wars programming.
After The Acolyte bombed, Disney held out hope that the quality of Skeleton Crew and the presence of Jude Law would change things.


Photo: Disney
Based on the data I’ve seen, that scenario didn’t unfold. If anything, the show has underperformed.
I’m basing this statement on the fact that Skeleton Crew debuted on the same day that the Nielsen charts began.


Photo: Fandango
So, the show had the full week of viewer data, not a partial week as is typically the case for Disney+ releases.
That’s the other reason. Even with maximum release data, Skeleton Crew didn’t make a dent for any of its initial episodes.


Photo: Disney
Disney+ had scheduled its December calendar in anticipation of or at least hope of a similar performance to Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
That’s a swing and a miss. We know that the number ten Original for the week claimed 382 million viewer minutes.


Matt Kennedy/Lucasfilm Ltd.
Based on this information, this is the worst debut ever for a Star Wars title on Disney+. Something’s gotta change at Lucasfilm.
The Charts for December 2nd and December 9th, 2024


Photo: Bluey.tv
Keeping that in mind, Bluey returned to glory on Disney’s streaming services.
Bluey was the most-streamed Disney+ or Hulu program during both weeks.


Photo: Ludo Studios
During the week of December 2nd, Bluey gained 1.01 billion minutes, followed by 905 million minutes for December 9th-15th.
Those 1.9 billion minutes pretty much seal the deal on Bluey being the most streamed program of 2024.


Photo: Ludo Studios
Nielsen posted the annual chart at the end of January in 2024. So, we should get confirmation quite soon.
Meanwhile, Fox’s Animation Domination lineup continues to excel on streaming.


IMDB
For these two weeks, Bob’s Burgers was slightly more popular than Family Guy.
Bob’s Burgers earned 824 million and 743 million minutes watched, while Family Guy was right behind it at 692 million and 730 million.


Image Credit: ABC
Still, neither one could match Grey’s Anatomy, which managed more than 1.6 million minutes of streaming.
For the week of December 9th, these were the four most-streamed programs on the Acquired charts and four of the top ten overall as well.


Credit: ABC
Lost, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Gossip Girl also finished in the top ten for the week of December 2nd.
Gossip Girl dropped out during the week of December 9th, but I suspect the recent Blake Lively/Justin Baldoni drama may change that.


Movie Poster – Home Alone
On the Movies chart, the holiday spirit took over, with 60 percent of the top ten Christmas-related.
Disney streamed two of those titles, Elf and Home Alone, which combined for more than 900 million viewer minutes.


Photo: Disney
Oddly, Moana was missing, though. As a reminder, Moana 2 was currently the number one film in the world at the time.
So, the absence of Moana makes no sense whatsoever. Nielsen gonna Nielsen.
The Charts for December 16th, 2024
Nielsen’s most recent charts are still live. You can read them here.
The timeframe for this chart is December 16th through the 22nd.
As you might imagine, the Christmas spirit was driving consumer behavior.
Even Red One, a huge box office bomb starring The Rock, performed well since it was a Christmas movie streaming free on Amazon the week before Christmas.


Photo: IMDb
For Disney, Home Alone and Elf appeared again, as did Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
Disney+ and Hulu viewers streamed nearly 1.6 billion minutes of these three titles.


Photo: Sky News
Personally, I spent more time watching The Holiday and Hallmark+, but to each their own.
Otherwise, the most recent Nielsen charts looked nearly identical to the other two weeks of data.


American Dad
Here are the Disney titles that appeared in the streaming top ten:
- Bluey – 1.09 billion viewer minutes
- Family Guy – 808 million viewer minutes
- Bob’s Burgers – 796 million viewer minutes
- Grey’s Anatomy – 751 million viewer minutes
- NCIS – 568 million viewer minutes
- American Dad – 554 million viewer minutes


Photo: Bluey.tv
When you study these charts, you realize just how much Disney’s entire streaming model hinges on Bluey and the Animation Domination titles.
Okay, that’s everything for this week. I hope to have something more exciting for you now that Nielsen is catching up again.
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