If anyone was questioning Amazon's $125 million acquisition of the Eddie Murphy sequel Coming 2 America, look no further than the Nielsen streaming rankings because the film turned into a huge hit for the streaming platform.
Coming 2 America, the long-awaited sequel to 1988's Coming To America, leads Nielsen's streaming rankings for the week of March 1-7 with 1.41 billion minutes of viewing time. This makes the film the first Amazon title to ever top the Nielsen streaming chart and the performance makes it one of the most-watched films to debut on any streaming in the six months that Nielsen has been releasing weekly rankings. The only titles to top Coming 2 America in the last six months were Wonder Woman 1984 (2.25 billion minutes on HBO Max), Soul (1.67 billion minutes on Disney+), and The Christmas Chronicles 2 (1.52 billion minutes on Netflix).
To put things in perspective, the 1.41 billion minutes of watch time for the Craig Brewer-directed comedy equates to about 12.8 million full showings of the film based on its 110-minute running time. I'm very curious what this would translate to in terms of box office because many people that try to following streaming data want to know how a project would perform outside of its streaming release. It's safe to say that Coming 2 America would've opened well if released theatrically but I'd love to see how these minutes would've looked as box office figures.
Streaming services stress that Nielsen's methodology doesn't show the whole picture. Nielsen only tracks data on TV sets and they only measure U.S. audiences and not those in other countries. Coming 2 America was likely an even bigger powerhouse than this indicates and I would imagine that Amazon is happy with the exposure the sequel brought to the platform.
What are YOUR thoughts on the streaming ranking for Coming 2 America? You can check out the top ten streaming titles below for original series, acquired series, and original movies!
Original Series
1. Ginny & Georgia (Netflix), 1.16 billion minutes viewed
2. WandaVision (Disney+), 924 million
3. Murder Among the Mormons (Netflix), 587 million
4. Behind Her Eyes (Netflix), 369 million
5. Firefly Lane (Netflix), 274 million
6. The Crown (Netflix), 242 million
7. Orange Is the New Black (Netflix), 237 million
8. Bridgerton (Netflix), 235 million
9. The Great British Baking Show (Netflix), 207 million
10. Longmire (Netflix), 201 million
Acquired Series
1. Criminal Minds (Netflix), 929 million minutes
2. Grey's Anatomy (Netflix), 858 million
3. Good Girls (Netflix), 579 million
4. NCIS (Netflix), 555 million
5. Schitt's Creek (Netflix), 493 million
6 (tie). Cocomelon (Netflix), 475 million
6 (tie). Heartland (Netflix), 475 million
8. iCarly (Netflix), 431 million
9. Supernatural (Netflix), 400 million
10. The Sinner (Netflix), 334 million
Original Movies
1. Coming 2 America* (Amazon), 1.41 billion minutes
2 (tie). Bigfoot Family (Netflix), 363 million
2 (tie). I Care a Lot* (Netflix), 363 million
4. Raya and the Last Dragon* (Disney+), 355 million
5. Moxie* (Netflix), 257 million
6. Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell* (Netflix), 203 million
7. Moana (Disney+), 185 million
8. The Dark Knight (Netflix), 176 million
9. No Escape (Netflix), 141 million
10. Frozen (Disney+), 134 million