‘Star Wars: Rise Of Skywalker’ Force Grips 3rd Best December Opening With $193M+; Drat Those ‘Cats’ $7.6M, ‘Bombshell’ $5.8M
SKYWALKER: RelishMix reports that Skywalker has “an exceptional social media universe” with 670M followers, even though it’s below the 796M that Last Jedi had by opening weekend. Nonetheless, Skywalker‘s SMU is still ahead of the sci-fi genre’s 268.1M. Broken out Skywalker‘s SMU counts 116.5M Facebook fans, 44.6M Facebook video views, 20.1M Twitter Followers, 424.8M YouTube views and 63.5M Instagram followers.
“There was such insane anticipation for 2015’s Force Awakens that any sequel was going to struggle to match it, even after such a long hiatus for the series,” says RelishMix about the calming down of Skywalker‘s social media footprint. Nonetheless the viral reposting rate of Skywalker videos is great at 30:1. While the pic’s tops stars like Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver aren’t socially activated, they’ve been on the talk show circuit as early as November, even prior to Thanksgiving and those clips have been out there in full on social. The average daily YouTube views for Skywalker’s clips are coming in about 42K, which is a little ahead of the 40K usual for the sci-fi genre. That daily average figure certainly peaked to 100K views during different points in the campaign, from the first trailer out of Star Wars Celebration to D23 and beyond.
The 24-hour global traffic for the first Skywalker teaser out of Star Wars Celebration on April 12 was 111M, which was 20M more than Last Jedi‘s teaser (91M on April 14, 2017) and more than double the 24-hour traffic for Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser from Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, 2014. Still that number paled greatly in comparison to the first 24 hours clocked by Avengers: Endgame (289M views last December), Avengers: Infinity War (238M) and the Thanksgiving day drop of The Lion King (224.6M views). Note these are from organic and paid views.
One Skywalker related video that has clocked plenty of traffic (14.3M views) is a heartfelt spot from Philippines company Globe PH, one the ninth-quel’s global partners. It’s the length of a traditional trailer, but features the scavenger hunt that two little kids go on to help their friend, who happens to be deaf, experience Skywalker for herself. “With millions of views over the past month, it’s a great example of the kind of materials left for the last 4-6 weeks of the campaign that have put engagement on social on full tilt,” praises RelishMix.
No shocker here, but RelishMix always noticed a divided reaction to Skywalker online, though it leaned slightly positive with many shouting out that they already bought tickets and made plans. “Especially after The Last Jedi, some fans are frustrated by the direction of the series and have plenty of discussion points to support their theories. And not to roll too far down the rabbit hole, but everyone from the cast to Disney execs are being prosecuted in the court of Star Wars public opinion,” says RelishMix.
CATS: Heading into the weekend, Cats ironically looked fantastic on social media with a universe reach of half billion, way ahead of the the usual drama/musical’s 112M total according to RelishMix. The pic’s videos have a massive viral rate of 28:1. But just because Cats is purring views, that doesn’t necessarily mean the reception is positive. One of the reasons why the trailer got so many clicks stemmed from the fact that people were making fun of it. Also in regards to Cats‘ SMU, “most musicals don’t have Taylor Swift in the cast – and she makes up 56% of the Cats SMU on her own with 281M followers. She’s fully activated and supporting the pic on social,” adds RelishMix. Overall, the cast, including James Corden, Rebel Wilson and Jason Derulo, reps 75% of Cats’ SMU. “Swift has been actively involved from the start, from the poster share to the behind-the-scenes look last July, and has now been very helpful in promoting the song and subsequent video, ‘Beautiful Ghosts’ for the movie.”
RelishMix noting the great gripes against Cats on social media reports, “Moviegoers are asking, ‘What’s the plot, please?’ Something about a wish to become something more? The question is not unique in its attitude and disdain for the look of well-known actors running around in body suits making snarky cat comedy. For non-cat lovers, too, there are plenty of jokes and disparaging discussion. It’s also worth mentioning that there are some Broadway theater fans of Cats who aren’t necessarily liking what they’re hearing/seeing on this 2019 version for cinemas.”