Earlier this month, we attempted to answer the question of whether or not Wonder Woman 1984 was a success for HBO Max. Our conclusion was that it did indeed perform well for the fledgling streaming service. Those findings seem to gel with recent updates from both within and outside AT&T. During the company’s quarterly earnings report this week ,it revealed that the number of HBO Max activations have more than doubled from September to 17.2 million. Now, according to trusty old Nielsen ratings, it appears as if Wonder Woman 1984 was a full fledged viewership hit.
The highly anticipated superhero sequel arrived in theaters and on HBO Max Christmas Day. According to Nielsen, the film earned 2.252 billion minutes of viewership during the week of December 21-December 27, making it the most-watched SVOD content in that span. This marked a 35% lead on Pixar’s Soul, which arrived on Disney+ the same day and generated 1.7 billion minutes viewed in its first two days. It’s also 85% ahead of Netflix (NFLX)’s Bridgerton, which has been shattering Netflix’s internal self-reported viewership numbers.
With a running time of 155 minutes, Nielsen’s data equates to roughly 14.5 million views on HBO Max within Wonder Woman 1984‘s first 48 hours of availability. HBO Max may not have added quite as many new subscribers over the last quarter as Wall Street would have liked, but the service accounted for nearly 25% of all new premium SVOD customers in that time span, according to analytics firm ANTENNA. Slow and steady growth is occurring while Wonder Woman 1984‘s immense viewership suggests high levels of engagement. If HBO Max can retain the majority of the new subscribers who joined for WW84, the film will have done its job.
Today, Denzel Washington’s The Little Things arrives in both theaters and on HBO Max. In March, Zack Snyder’s Justice League will debut and will be followed by Godzilla vs. Kong.
