January Insights From Cinelytic
The top streamed Films of 2022 by Studio – which studio had most content success?
While the film industry still has not fully recovered, we all know 2022 was a far more lucrative and hope inducing year in comparison to 2021. The Domestic Box Office (DBO) in 2021, still reeling from the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, totaled just US$4.48b, a far cry from the US$11.63b average between 2018 and 2019. In 2022, moviegoers managed to pump up that figure to US$7.37b, representing a 64% increase. The top five grossing films of 2021, led by SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, totaled US$1.37b of DBO and averaged US$273.5m per movie. The top five of 2022, of course led by TOP GUN: MAVERICK, totaled US$2.34b and averaged US$468.8m per movie.
While audiences seem to be making it clear that they are once again willing to leave their homes for a local theater if the right event film is available (look no further than AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER if you need another example), it’s not as if the world of streaming and home viewing has taken a hit. This time last year, we at Cinelytic took a deep dive into 2021 OTT viewing by using our proprietary P2P data platform. The system captures 125m transactions per day across the world to agglomerate to an annual tally of 35b. As we begin our journey into 2023, we have decided to once again look into the strongest week of playability by title to see how 2022 releases performed. Evaluating the respective Top Five market share of each studio allows one to eliminate seasonality bias as well as the effect of theater closures:
As the above graphic illustrates, known IP, franchises and sequels made up most of the top titles that drove performance for each studio, just as they did in 2021. Marvel titles continued to drive Disney with DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE and ETERNALS vs. SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE SEVEN RINGS and BLACK WIDOW in 2021. The same for Sony with SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME and MORBIUS this year vs. VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE in 2021.
What is notably distinct however, is that the overall best performing studio in regard to Film OTT viewing, Universal Pictures, was able to claim the top spot with three original concepts (SILENT NIGHT, NOPE, THE NORTHMAN). The below graphic provides a more expanded look at the Top 10 performing studios when it comes to OTT releases:
In the end, Universal edged out Disney to be the Top Studio for Films with a balanced mix of original ideas and known franchises. All films generated roughly 20% market share for the Studio. In the case of others, one or two titles drove a larger share of consumption. Audiences appear to want both types and content and 2023 looks to be an even better year for the industry and the consumer!
