‘The Last Of Us’ Hits First Billion-Minute Week On Nielsen U.S. Streaming Charts; ‘Wakanda Forever’ Debuts Among Most-Streamed Movies

Eva Longoria is getting ready to release her feature directorial debut “Flamin’ Hot”, which is set to have an unprecedented release debuting on both Hulu and Disney+ on June 9, 2023.

EXCLUSIVE: Following the movie’s world premiere at SXSW, Searchlight Pictures’ Eva Longoria feature directorial debut, Flamin’ Hot, will stream on both Hulu and Disney+ on June 9. It’s the first time that a new movie has been made available on both of the Disney-owned OTT services stateside. The pic will stream on Disney+ overseas.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Banijay, Stéphane Courbit’s TV production and distribution powerhouse behind “Survivor” and “Peaky Blinders,” has made a vibrant debut in the Amsterdam stock market. The Paris-headquartered company, which took over Endemol Shine Group in 2020 in a splashy $2.2 billion deal, saw its revenue climb by 16.5% – or 13.3% at constant currency — to €3.21 billion ($3.4 billion) in 2022. While its profit margin fell by 1% to 14.7%, Banijay’s earnings before interest, tax and amortization (EBITDA) grew by 9% to €472 million ($501 million) in 2022. A bullish performance compared with its rival Fremantle whose EBITDA reached €162 million after rising by 15% during the same period.

The Nielsen U.S. streaming chart didn’t change much from the second week of February to the third. You and New Amsterdam continued to dominate from February 13 to February 19.

BreAnna Bell For the second consecutive week, Joe Goldberg continues to lead the competition on Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 list following the release of “You” Season 4, Part 1. During the Feb. 13-19 viewing window, the thriller picked up 1.47 billion minutes viewed following its Feb. 9 release. That’s a slight fall from the previous week’s opening at 1.73 billion minutes viewed, but remains a solid performance. Part 2 of Season 4 was released on March 9, so it’s expected that the show will continue to stay among the top 10 titles for some time. Following closely behind is “New Amsterdam” with 1.05 billion minutes viewed. Netflix and Peacock both share the title’s catalog. Netflix added two seasons of the series in January. Previously, the show was only available for streaming on Peacock.

The conclusion of the NFL season led to an expected decline in TV usage, especially in broadcast, for the month of February. Despite the typical seasonal dip in viewing, New Amsterdam and The Last Of Us helped streaming stay strong.

Ruth E. Carter once again made history at Sunday’s 95th annual Academy Awards, becoming the first Black woman to win two Oscars. Carter received the award for Best Costume Design for her work on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Christopher Vourlias When he began working on his latest documentary, “The Last Seagull,” acclaimed Bulgarian filmmaker Tonislav Hristov (“The Good Postman”) set himself a seemingly simple task: to follow the last of the dying breed of male escorts who, since the communist era, have spent their summers seducing foreign women in resort towns along the Black Sea. That plan went astray, however, when real-world events intervened: first the coronavirus pandemic, which grounded flights and shuttered the very resorts where those escorts plied their trade; then the war in Ukraine, which impacted “The Last Seagull” in unexpected ways. “This is what’s nice, but also scary, about documentaries,” Hristov told Variety after the film’s world premiere at the Thessaloniki Intl. Documentary Festival. “You never know what’s going to happen next.”

As expected, You dominated the Nielsen U.S. streaming charts for the week of February 6 to February 12.

BreAnna Bell “You” returns to Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 list, leading this week’s ranking of titles after Netflix released the first five episodes of the show’s latest season last month. During the Feb. 6-12 viewing window, the series managed 1.73 billion minutes viewed in its first four days of availability. The second half of Season 4 was released on March 9. According to Nielsen’s break down, the psychological thriller series attracted an audience very similar to “Friends” on HBO Max with 42% of viewers aged 18-34 and 65% of viewers female. “New Amsterdam” ranked second on the list with 1.5 billion viewing minutes — that’s up 17% from the previous week and attracted an even more female-skewing audience (68%) than “You.” This marks the second consecutive week that the title has brought in over a billion minutes. Netflix added two seasons of the series in January. Before, “New Amsterdam” was originally only available for streaming on Peacock.

The Last of Us.” The series, led by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, has been one of HBO Max’s biggest hits, attracting a large audience and dominating Twitter whenever a new episode drops. This week, the show hit an important milestone, cementing its first billion-minute week since its debut in January. Sarah Michelle Gellar looks back at Pedro Pascal’s role on ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’Pedro Pascal takes the NYC train with his sister Lux Pascal to enjoy an off-Broadway showA post shared by Pedro Pascal he/him (@pascalispunk)The news were first reported by Deadline, sharing that the series jumped in 36 percent viewership over the past week per Nielsen data.

BreAnna Bell Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” opened on Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 chart to record breaking numbers. During the Jan. 30-Feb. 5 viewing window, the film (which was added to the Disney+ streaming service on Feb. 1 following its theatrical run) quickly landed itself on Nielsen’s most-streamed movies within a measurement week chart with 2.269 billion viewing minutes. It falls just behind “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” (2.886 billion) and “Hocus Pocus 2” (2.725 billion). It’s also Nielsen’s top-viewed title of the week. In a rare instance, the top five titles across four different platforms recorded over 1 billion viewing minutes on Nielsen’s streaming chart. Coming in at No. 2, Netflix’s “You People” continues to be a leader on the chart with 1.55 billion minutes viewed in its second complete week of availability.

Organizers of the annual ReFrame Report said Wednesday that 29 of the 100 most popular films of 2022 met the criteria to be awarded a ReFrame Stamp for gender-balanced productions, a list that includes Oscar Best Picture nominees like Sarah Polley’s Women Talking and The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once, as well as Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King and Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Thirty years after her first Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It, Angela Bassett is once again a contender. But this nod, for her heart-wrenching turn in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, feels different. “I was just shell-shocked last time,” Bassett says. “It’s still very exciting. But last time, it was just mind-blowing.” Her second nomination is no less meaningful — it’s the first performance in a Marvel movie to be recognized by the Academy. Bassett talks about the historical and emotional nature of Wakanda Forever and finding the marrow in everything she does.

Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, performed an original song at the ceremony earlier this week that name-checked various Best Actress nominees including Bassett, Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh.“Angela Bassett did the thing, Viola Davis my Woman King, Blanchett Cate you’re a genius, Jamie Lee you are all of us,” sang the West Side Story star as she danced around the stage. After the performance was widely mocked online, DeBose deactivated her Twitter account and BAFTAs awards producer Nick Bullen described the criticism as “incredibly unfair.”Speaking to Variety at the NAACP Image Awards last night (February 25), Bassett said she checked up on DeBose after the incident and the criticism that followed.“I DM’d her last night.

Lizzo made a playful reference to Ariana DeBose’s viral rap at the 2023 BAFTA Film Awards, during a concert in Amsterdam last night (February 23).The actor, best known for starring in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, performed an original song at the ceremony earlier this week that name-checked various Best Actress nominees including Angela Bassett, Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh.“Angela Bassett did the thing, Viola Davis my Woman King, Blanchett Cate you’re a genius, Jamie Lee you are all of us,” sang the West Side Story star as she danced around the stage. After the performance was widely mocked online, DeBose deactivated her Twitter account and BAFTAs awards producer Nick Bullen described the criticism as “incredibly unfair.”Last night, Lizzo drew huge cheers as she joked: “Let’s shake it off! Angela Bassett did the thing, shake it off!” before copying DeBose’s shoulder shimmy at a concert at the Ziggo Dome.

Regardless of your thoughts on Marvel Studios’ latest film, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” there’s no one who can deny that the film is VFX-heavy. From the moment the main characters venture into the Quantum Realm (about 15 minutes into the film), there isn’t a moment on screen that doesn’t include some sort of VFX work.

Ludwig Göransson Composer Ludwig Göransson won an Oscar in 2019 for his “Black Panther” score, and is again nominated for the original song Academy Award for “Lift Me Up” from the sequel, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” along with Rihanna, Tems and director-writer Ryan Coogler. In the film, Coogler wrestles with the loss of Chadwick Boseman, T’Challa, the original Black Panther, the impact of that loss on the other characters, including T’Challa’s sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) and introduces audiences to a new, underwater civilization in the Gulf of Mexico, Talokan, led by Namor (Tenoch Huerta). Göransson reflects on how the song came together: Four years ago, while I was recording in Senegal, I was introduced to a beautiful West African instrument called the kora. The first seeds of “Lift Me Up” came from that trip, and I used a part of the melody in the first “Black Panther” when T’Challa travels to the ancestral plain for the first time and sees his father who has passed on. Hearing it now in a song meant to memorialize Chadwick Boseman himself has been both devastating and cathartic.

Kenya Barris and Jonah Hill‘s romantic comedy You People managed to unseat Ginny & Georgia atop the Nielsen U.S. streaming charts for the week of January 23 to January 29.

The Oscars are getting a big dose of RiRi.