Wonder Woman 1984 Tops Soul in Christmas Day Streaming Face-off

The Christmas holiday season is usually one of the year's biggest box office weeks, but during the pandemic, the focus instead shifted to a pair of would-be blockbuster films that debuted Dec. 25 on rival streaming services: HBO Max's Wonder Woman 1984 and Disney+'s Soul. And the early winner in that key streaming wars battle? The superhero sequel, according to new data from Nielsen. During the week of Dec. 21-27, Wonder Woman 1984—which was released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max on Dec. 25—was the No. 1 streaming title in the U.S., with households watching more than 2.25 billion minutes of the 150-minute-long film. Coming in a distant second was Soul, which went straight to the streamer on Dec. 25 instead of debuting in theaters. Soul, which runs for 100 minutes, was watched for nearly 1.67 billion minutes in that same week. Both titles shot to the top of Nielsen’s Weekly Streaming Top 10 list despite only becoming available in the last three days of the weeklong measurement period. As theaters struggle, streaming soars The figures help highlight the value of rerouting high-profile theatrical releases to streaming as companies look to drive new customers to their services. HBO Max has made a big bet on the strategy in the coming year: In December, WarnerMedia announced the astonishing move to simultaneously release all of Warner Bros.’ upcoming film slate in theaters and on HBO Max, as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect the traditional theater business and as HBO Max looks to drive sign-ups. The results from Wonder Woman 1984 bodes well for the streaming in the coming year, and there is some early subscription data to suggest the strategy is working. Just this week, HBO Max parent company AT&T shared new subscriber numbers: As of the end of 2020, 17.2 million customers had activated their HBO Max accounts and 6.9 million were paying retail prices for the service, representing a notable jump from the prior quarter. (Wonder Woman 1984 was only available on the service for 31 days, so subscription figures released this week may not tell the full story about the title's effects on activations and sign-ups.) Ahead of Soul's release, Disney+ was already at 86.6 million subscribers and was preparing a bigger international push, along with a price hike. The company, which sent several other theatrical titles straight to streaming last year, may share more about Soul’s performance on the service during its fourth quarter call with investors next month. And while Wonder Woman 1984 won the initial face-off, Soul may very well be the victor over the long run, given that the superhero film is no longer streaming on HBO Max and animated films tend to be streamed over and over again by younger viewers. The Office continues to impress in its new home Friday’s data release is somewhat unusual, mainly because HBO Max titles are not yet a permanent addition to Nielsen’s Weekly Streaming Top 10. The measurement firm and HBO Max made an exception to include data about Wonder Woman 1984—likely because of how positive the figures look for HBO Max, which is readying the debut of an ad-supported tier and an international push later this year. “The impact of Wonder Woman 1984 on HBO Max cannot be understated. As was announced on Wednesday during our earnings and as this Nielsen data shows, it was a huge holiday gift to the consumer at a time when they wanted and needed it,” HBO Max evp and general manager Andy Forssell said in a statement. “This partnership with Warner Bros. of course continues throughout the year, but it began with Wonder Woman’s arrival on Christmas Day to great success.” Netflix, unsurprisingly, rounded out the top five in the last full week of December. The first season of the Shonda Rhimes-produced period drama Bridgerton, which just this week became the service’s most-watched original ever, was streamed for more than 1.2 billion minutes after also debuting Dec. 25, making it the fourth most-popular title on streaming that week. George Clooney-directed sci-fi drama The Midnight Sky, which premiered on Netflix on Dec. 18, was the fifth most streamed title, with U.S. viewers watching more than 1.1 billion minutes of the 118-minute-long film. The Office continued to perform well in its final full week on Netflix, with 1.4 billion minutes watched, making it the third most-streamed show in the U.S., according to Nielsen. On Jan. 1, the show migrated over to NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock, and this week, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell made the claim that the sitcom was even more in-demand now that it’s on Peacock, which has counted 33 million sign-ups. (Peacock figures are not yet included in Nielsen’s Weekly Streaming Top 10 figures.) “Our usage among our customers is actually higher than we think the usage was among Netflix customers,” Shell said Thursday—a bold statement, considering that the title was last year’s most-streamed show on any service, according to Nielsen.