Zack Snyder’s ‘Army Of The Dead’ Taps Nielsen Streaming Charts As Consumption Of Horror Genres Continues To Rise

Horror, a cinematic genre once overlooked by Hollywood, is on the movie industry’s hottest streak as moviegoers spend money on their next good cry, even during a global pandemic.

Zack Snyder’s latest film, the zombie heist movie Army of the dead, is the latest example of how the public can’t resist a good scare. Netflix film topped Nielsen’s US movie streaming charts during the week of May 17-23, edging out Disney animated films Raya and the last dragon and Cruel, a live account of the origin story behind the 101 Dalmatians scoundrel.

“While it may seem, in a way, counterintuitive that people turn to horror movies when in the past year there have been so many tragic events in the world. , I think that’s the fantastic element, “said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at media analysis firm Comscore:” People understand that these are just movies and not necessarily related to life. real. ”

Army of the dead, About a group of mercenaries who plan a Las Vegas casino heist in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, is set to become one of Netflix’s 10 most-watched movies, according to Nielsen. Its success comes on the heels of the box office crash A quiet place II, a sci-fi horror thriller that generated $ 226 million in ticket sales worldwide.

Horror has been a reliable (and lucrative) genre for Hollywood since the pre-pandemic days. In 2017, horror films were the most successful in recent years at the box office, and for the first time, the horror genre grossed over $ 1 billion with lucrative films like He (raising $ 329.3 million), Exit ($176.5 million) and Annabelle: Creation ($ 102.3 million), according to information from Comscore.

With movie chains such as AMC, Regal and Cinemark forced to temporarily close theaters across the country during the pandemic, streamers stepped in to capitalize. In the wake of the success of his sci-fi horror series Strange things, Netflix recently purchased the worldwide rights to the French horror thriller, The swarm, about a woman who develops an obsession with grasshoppers who develop a taste for human blood, and Christian Bale’s upcoming horror thriller Pale blue eye.

Amazon Studios struck a deal in August 2020 with one of the genre’s most successful producers, Jason Blum, on a series of anthologies Welcome to the Blumhouse, a collection of eight original films centered on the themes of family, love and phobias within the macrocosm of horror.

Blum, a master of horror and founder of Blumhouse Productions, is at the center of the continued rise in horror amid the pandemic, with Get out filmmaker Jordan Peele. Blum’s 2020 reinterpretation of the 1933 Universal Pictures classic, Invisible Man, earned around $ 143 million at the global box office, according to Box Office Mojo.

Historically, horror has served as a relief to moviegoers during darker times, like the pandemic, Blum says.

“It sounds counterintuitive, but I think it’s because people are comforted by the idea of ​​seeing something scary happening that is very controllable, it doesn’t happen to them,” Blum said. “Somehow it gives people catharsis and relief from what can be very dark around it.”

Analyst Dergarabedian predicts that consumption of horror films will continue to increase over the years due to its profitability, which explains the success of low budget films like A Quiet Place, Part II.

“You can spend a lot of money if you want to on a horror movie, but you don’t have to,” Dergarabedian says. “It’s really about the story, the plot, the directing, the music and the performance, that’s all. Those things, but they all come from the script.”

however, Army of the dead the planned budget of $ 90 million may have helped it to dominate the Nielsen charts. In her second week on Netflix – the movie’s first full week –Army of the dead totaled 786 million minutes viewed. With around 127 million less viewing minutes than it debuted, the film saw only a 14% drop in viewing, a win for the streaming platform given the streaming issues of Jupiter’s legacy.

Jupiter’s legacy, a Netflix original series, previously held the title of the No. 1 ranked streaming show, but fell to No. 10 after registering just 405 million minutes of viewing from May 17 to 23, after its debut. sustained a billion minutes of viewing time. Netflix canceled the series just a month after its premiere.

Netflix Productions occupied the top five movie spots on Nielsen’s list with Army of the dead (2021), Home (2015), Blue miracle (2021), The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021) and Missing dog (2019).

Disney + movie Cruel made a strong debut on the list with 280 million minutes views. The film directed by Emma Stone was followed by two other Disney + films; Moana (196 million minutes viewed) and Raya and the last dragon (162 million minutes viewed).

Here’s a list of upcoming horror movie releases for 2021:

1. The purge forever – July 2, 2021
2. Escape Game: Tournament of Champions – July 16, 2021
3. Don’t breathe 2 – August 13, 2021
4. The night house – August 20, 2021
5. Candyman – August 27, 2021
6. Malin – September 10, 2021
7. Halloween Kills – October 15, 2021
8. Wood – October 29, 2021
9. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City – November 24, 2021