Almost every movie released in 2021 came with a whispered plea from fans: “I hope it doesn’t tank.” In some ways, this was just a desperate wish that the movie not suck. But it was also a hope for something more: That, amidst an ever-fluctuating Covid-19 pandemic scene, the movie be a success, make money, find an audience. Moviegoers are savvy enough now to know that if any particular franchise/director/star doesn’t do well, the chances of more films from that franchise/director/star dwindle. Success begets opportunities for more success.
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WarnerMedia shared updated subscriber numbers Wednesday for HBO and HBO Max, noting that the 73.8 million total exceeded internal projections for 2021. CEO Jason Kilar credited his controversial decision to debut Warner Bros.’ entire 2021 film slate in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously. While the company stopped short of sharing any numbers on how specific movies performed, data from connected TV analytics firm Samba TV gives a sense of how the titles fared on the streaming service.
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Mortal Kombat proved to be a hit for HBO Max. In 2021, the streaming service released a slate of major Warner Bros. movies to subscribers the same day they hit movie theaters. According to stats from Samba TV, a third-party tracker of online viewership, as reported by Business Insider, Mortal Kombat had the most viewers upon its opening weekend of any of the day-and-date releases.
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Samba TV -- the TV measurement company, which recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to become a public company -- has added to its growing executive team by hiring former Amazon executive Robert Coon as chief revenue officer.
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Warner Bros./Village Roadshow’s theatrical-day-and-date release of The Matrix Resurrections didn’t wow in its 5-day opening at the domestic box office with $22.5M, while in its HBO Max debut in homes fared OK, watched by 2.8 million smart TV U.S. households over the Wednesday-Sunday period. This is according to fresh stats from Samba TV which measures streaming viewership across 46 million TV devices with a panel of 3 million Smart TV households.
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Insider ranked each release by their opening weekend viewership on Max, according to data from the TV measurement firm Samba TV.
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