New 'Manifest,' 'Crown' help Netflix pile up multibillion-minute hits
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) used more new in-demand content to pile up share of streaming eyeballs again, once again topping ratings with some breadth across hit series and movies.
The streaming pioneer made waves over a year ago after adding NBC (NASDAQ:CMCSA) castoff Manifest to its service and funding a big fourth and final season.
That final season has arrived - and as it did last year, it's dominated viewer eyeballs, streaming 2.289B minutes in the latest Nielsen weekly streaming ratings (for Nov. 7-13).
And it faced close competition from a sibling series, a new fifth season of The Crown, which landed on Netflix (NFLX) to the tune of 2.127B minutes streamed for the week. The Crown offers an important hit counterpoint to shows like Manifest, Nielsen notes, because of the older demographic it brings into streaming (nearly 60% of The Crown viewers are 50 or older, and 29% are 65 or older).
Those shows were followed on the overall chart by Netflix's reality dating show Love is Blind (1.274B minutes) and sequel film Enola Holmes 2 (942M minutes).
But older demographics aren't the only battleground, Nielsen notes, as the No. 5 overall show was Netflix's toddler-focused standby CoComelon (791M minutes), which landed not too far ahead of Disney+ (NYSE:DIS) children's show Bluey (687M minutes).
The original-series chart as expected is topped by those Netflix forays, Manifest, The Crown, Love is Blind and Warrior Nun (595M minutes), along with The Great British Baking Show (528M minutes). Hulu (DIS) (CMCSA) once again placed The Handmaid's Tale, at No. 6 with 520M minutes, and Disney+ (DIS) put Andor at No. 8 with 420M minutes.
Acquired series were led by CoComelon, Netflix's (NFLX) NCIS (786M minutes) and Disney's Bluey. But Peacock (CMCSA) hit the charts again, this time with Yellowstone, No. 5 on the acquired list with 607M minutes. And HBO Max (NASDAQ:WBD) put three series on that chart: Friends at No. 7 (562M minutes), The Big Bang Theory at No. 9 (463M minutes), and Game of Thrones at No. 10 (432M minutes).
The movies list was also heavier on Netflix (NFLX) than usual. It logged the top four films in Enola Holmes 2, Where the Crawdads Sing (659M minutes), Falling for Christmas (636M minutes) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (328M minutes), before HBO Max landed with Don't Worry Darling (290M minutes) and Disney+ with Black Panther (289M minutes).
(Nielsen streaming ratings now incorporate viewing from seven major streamers: Amazon Prime Video (AMZN), Apple TV+ (AAPL), Disney+ (DIS), HBO Max (WBD), Hulu (DIS) (CMCSA), Netflix (NFLX) and Peacock (CMCSA).)
Netflix stock rose more than 3% Friday as it enjoyed an upgrade from Wells Fargo, seeing an improving subscriber base.