When Even Taylor Swift Can't Help Disney+ Challenge Netflix, The Streaming War Is Over

In terms of viewership for films and shows, there's Netflix and there's everything else.

Disney just dropped word that Taylor Swift: The ERA Tour earned 4.6 million viewers or households in its debut weekend on Disney+. That translates to 16.2 million hours spent watching an extended 3.5-hour version of the initial concert film. Disney is touting that as the top music film ever on the streaming platform, which it damn well ought to be considering the presumably small number of comparative titles (think Elton John: Farewell from Dodger Stadium or Black Is King: A Film by Beyoncé). However, it’s 13% of the total Fri-Sun viewership earned by the opening weekend of Netflix’s Damsel over the prior weekend.  

That 110-minute Millie Bobby Brown-starring action fantasy (shot by Larry Fong, so it has that going for it), about a princess who gets tossed into a dragon pit on her wedding night and must fight her way out, notched another 50.8 million views in the next seven days (March 11 through March 17). It’s yet another sign that, give or take periodic exceptions, the viewership for Netflix content tends to tower over any other streaming platform.

And by other streaming platforms, I mean ones like Hulu where Joey King’s terrific The Princess was yanked last year before thankfully becoming available on VOD. So if you liked Damsel…

That’s the case for original films like the frankly forgettable Kevin Hart-led ensemble heist flick Lift (95 million views in the first 24 days), original shows like the crime melodrama Fool Me Once (which nabbed 37 million views in its debut weekend) and previously theatrical third-party titles like The Equalizer 3 which regularly clog up Netflix’s most-watched lists. In terms of what a film or show can be expected to notch in per-item viewership, save for extraordinary events, there’s Netflix, and then there is everyone else.