A Christmas movie that struggled at the box office last month has broken records on a streaming platform.
What Happened: Starring Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, and Chris Evans, the Christmas movie "Red One" has set new records for Prime Video, the streaming platform owned by Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN).
The movie, which also stars J.K. Simmons and Lucy Liu, has been watched by more than 50 million people globally in its first four days on Prime Video, as reported by Variety. This makes the Christmas film the most-watched film debut ever on Prime Video, beating out "Road House," which had 50 million viewers across its first two weekends previously.
Opening in November in theaters worldwide, the film is still in many theatrical locations alongside its recent Prime Video debut. The film has a budget of $250 million and its box-office results have struggled to hit that figure to help the movie's financial performance.
The film had a domestic opening box office of $32.1 million, as reported by BoxOfficeMojo. To date, the film grossed $92.5 million domestically and $82.6 million internationally for a global total of $175.1 million.
While the film may end its theatrical run with less than $250 million, the movie could end up being a hit for Amazon thanks to the potential of streaming subscriber growth and advertising revenue.
"Whether or not people like it, the value of these movies is different for our business model … if we can put these movies out theatrically and cover our P&A (print and advertising costs), why wouldn't we? We're getting a massive marketing campaign that's being paid for before the film gets to streaming," Amazon MGM Head of Theatrical Distribution Kevin Wilson previously told Variety.
Amazon MGM Studios head Jennifer Salke said the film could be a "perennial holiday favorite" based on the audience response in theaters and on streaming thanks in part to the company's marketing plan.
"There was no doubt that strategy needed to include a theatrical release and associated marketing campaign, which drove audiences to theaters and generated awareness for the film with viewers who would ultimately tune in on Prime Video," Salke said.
Why It's Important: The film has a 6.5 rating out of 10 on IMDb, a movie database owned by Amazon. While this isn't a high rating, the film is ranked as the second most in popularity on the site, based on search interest, suggesting the viewership figure could continue to rise for Prime Video.
"Red One" got mixed reviews from the theatrical audience with critics giving the film a 30% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the audience giving the film a 90% rating.
The growth of Prime Video members could benefit Amazon in the long term and the streaming platform could get another boost soon.
Prime Video is the exclusive home to the new record-breaking game show "Beast Games" from content creator MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson.
The show premieres with its first two episodes on Dec. 19 with weekly episodes to follow for the 10-episode run where 1,000 contestants compete for a $5 million cash prize.
AMZN Price Action: Amazon stock trades at $231.75 at the time of publication Tuesday versus a 52-week trading range of $144.05 to $233. Amazon stock is up 54% year-to-date in 2024.
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