As you could know I have a look at how each Disney+ Star Wars sequence performs on the streaming charts. Earlier in 2024 I additionally added Luminate to the image and checked out their charts. And I already talked in regards to the Luminate charts for Skeleton Crew beforehand, as a result of their charts are launched in a way more well timed vogue. Nielsen has a 4 week delay, Luminate normally posts their charts 24 hours or so after the info gathering interval has ended for the week (nonetheless, Luminate haven’t up to date their charts since mid December).
So what do the Nielsen streaming charts say? Did Skeleton Crew carry out any higher right here after by no means making the highest 10 Luminate streaming charts? Click on by for the small print!
No love for Neel
Properly… Skeleton Crew didn’t make the highest 10, identical to on the Luminate charts. So Luminate and Nielsen agree. The #10 present on the Nielsen unique sequence charts has 384 million minutes watchtime.
That is the primary time a dwell motion Star Wars sequence has not made it into the highest 10 Nielsen unique sequence charts with its first episode. This can be a main disappointment for Lucasfilm and it must also drastically fear them. Is it potential The Acolyte and different usually considerably lackluster reveals (Ahsoka, The Mandalorian season 3, Obi-Wan Kenobi) turned individuals away from Star Wars content material on Disney+?
That is what the opposite reveals had in week 1 on the Nielsen streaming charts:
The Mandalorian S2: 1,032 million minutes
The E book of Boba Fett: 389 million minutes
Obi-Wan Kenobi: 1,026 million minutes (two episodes)
Andor: 624 million minutes (three episodes)
The Mandalorian S3: 823 million minutes
Ahsoka: 829 million minutes (two episodes)
The Acolyte: 488 million minutes (two episodes)
And now Skeleton Crew with two episodes and about 70 minutes runtime didn’t even handle to get 385 million minutes, to barely make the highest 10. And should you have a look at the E book of Boba Fett’s numbers, this was for only one episode with a 37 minute (with credit) runtime, so nearly half of what Skeleton Crew had with two episodes in week 1. Skeleton Crew would have wanted about 5.5 million views for the 2 episodes on Disney+ within the US to make it into the highest 10. It didn’t even attain that fairly low – for a Star Wars Collection – quantity.
I imagine Skeleton Crew is not going to enter the highest 10 charts even as soon as. The views for a $130+ million present should be abysmally low. It’s additionally telling that Disney didn’t even attempt to spin all of it into successful story as they nonetheless tried for The Acolyte, by posting their very own numbers with world views. In truth, we’ve heard nothing from them. The numbers should be so dangerous that no PR spin on the earth could make it seem like successful story.
If I had been Lucasfilm I’d be anxious that the Mandalorion & Grogu film may very well underperform. They actually need to get the advertising proper this time and Jon Favreau should recapture the magic of the primary two seasons. Or else Star Wars is perhaps in actual hassle.
Reality is {that a} present that has principally optimistic critiques by the individuals who do watch it has failed to realize any traction. That is particularly worrying, as a result of normally you’d suppose phrase of mouth would have a optimistic impact.
Additionally, Skeleton Crew had a a lot greater likelihood to enter the highest 10 Nielsen charts, as a result of Nielsen’s information gathering window is far more favorable to reveals in week 1. Luminate stops gathering information for the week at midnight on Thursday. So Skeleton Crew had solely slightly greater than two days time to build up watchtime. Nielsen nonetheless accumulate information from Monday by Sunday, so Skeleton Crew had greater than 5 days to build up watchtime in its first week.
I imagine it’s time for Disney to wash home at Lucasfilm. Whatever the high quality of the reveals budgets for every part are uncontrolled. Not simply the reveals, but additionally the film(s), nicely, the one Lucasfilm made (Indy 5). That Lucasfilm spent virtually 1 billion {dollars} (after tax credit) on Andor, The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew is insane.
I additionally imagine that the age of Disney+ Star Wars sequence could also be nearing its finish. Star Wars requires sure manufacturing qualities, you may’t make wordy dramas for Star Wars the place individuals simply sit at a desk and speak, you want the motion, the CGI, the planets, the set items… and it will by no means come low cost. They clearly haven’t discovered a technique to make Star Wars streaming reveals for affordable budgets. Obi-Wan Kenobi with a reported $90 million funds got here shut, however that present additionally regarded awfully low cost, at occasions like a fan manufacturing.
Extra importantly although there’s a distinct risk that folks have fallen out of affection with Star Wars after one too many disappointments. Merchandise gross sales replicate this as nicely, that are, so far as we all know, at an alltime low even now.
I stated it earlier than, I’ll say it once more… if Disney doesn’t need Star Wars to die with a whimper they should clear home, exchange Kennedy, rent all new inventive individuals and develop a correct plan and coherent imaginative and prescient for the franchise. As it’s now the reveals leap round on the timeline, there isn’t any frequent thread actually, all of it feels very scattershot, virtually random.
In the end Star Wars is possibly not meant to be made for the small display screen. In contrast to Star Trek which compared was not made for the large display screen, Star Trek motion pictures by no means actually had been big hits, as a result of all of the issues individuals love about Star Trek are finest realized on television/streaming. And all of the issues that folks love about Star Wars could also be inconceivable to make for television/streaming at affordable budgets. Until possibly it’s animated like The Clone Wars. However dwell motion Star Wars comes with plenty of expectations you must meet.
I might not be stunned if Ahsoka season 2 is the final Star Wars dwell motion sequence on Disney+. The views Disney will get with these reveals (outdoors of The Mandalorian and that’s attempting to develop into a film sequence) don’t justify the large manufacturing prices. It’s so simple as that.
What else. Disney+ continues to woefully underperform on the streaming charts. No unique sequence is within the high 10. Bluey is the one factor Disney has on the acquired sequence charts, and this isn’t even their very own IP. The one film on the charts is the basic House Alone, which is a Christmas basic and all the time within the charts in December. One other previous Christmas film, Elf, is within the high 10 film charts for Hulu/Max, so it’s not even unique to Hulu. Disney+ could be the second largest streaming service behind Netflix on paper… however they haven’t any tentpole content material, they haven’t any Stranger Issues, no Squid Recreation, no One Piece, The Mandalorian was an in a single day sensation, however not one of the different reveals might ever recapture that success and as a substitute we see diminishing returns with dwindling viewership for present after present, to the purpose the Ahsoka season finale had much less viewers than the Andor season finale. Then The Acolyte cratered… and now Skeleton Crew, despite the fact that it’s among the many finest issues Lucasfilm has made underneath Disney, is a whole dud in relation to viewership.
When even reveals which are nicely obtained not discover an viewers… it’s excessive time to spring into motion. Lucasfilm wants adjustments. Prior to later.
