Updated 10/28/2020: Amazon responded to Samba TV's first-weekend audience estimate for sequel Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, saying the satirical title garnered "tens of millions" of viewers on its platform. Amazon didn't elaborate on that performance description.
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The straight-to-streaming premiere of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat sequel garnered 1.6 million viewers last weekend, according to research company Samba TV, which measures connected TV usage on smart TVs.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm premiered on Amazon Prime Video Thursday, Oct. 22. Samba’s measurement tracked the film’s performance on the SVOD service through Sunday, Oct. 25.
For loose comparison, the Disney Plus Labor Day weekend premiere of Mulan generated 1.12 million household streams, Samba said.
Disney, however, was charging its Disney Plus subscribers an additional $30 to rent Mulan. Amazon, which acquired worldwide rights to Cohen’s sequel only last month, debuted the film on its Prime Video service free to subscribers.
Nearly half of Borat sequel viewers (48%) watched the movie on Friday night, and households with viewers age 25-44 over-indexed by 4%. Households with males also over-indexed by 4%.
With the pandemic continuing to disrupt global theatrical distribution, performances of movies that are put straight into the home video market are, of course, being watched closely.
