For the fifth consecutive week, Manifest was the most watched program on the major U.S. SVOD services, attracting 1.811 billion viewing minutes, according to Nielsen, for the week of July 5-11.
The quest to save the supernatural series, which NBC cancelled after three seasons, has become a movement. Stephen King joined the legions of fans around the world asking NBC or Netflix to green light a fourth season of the cancelled series. On Tuesday King tweeted #savemanifest.
When Netflix, which licensed Seasons 1 and 2 of Manifest, began streaming the series on June 10 the series garnered 1.11 billion viewing minutes. The following week the show took the No. 1 spot on the chart drawing a whopping 2.49 billion viewing minutes making it the most watched program for all of 2021. For the last five weeks, the NBC drama has maintained it No. 1 status.
The single-camera series—a Warner Bros. and Universal co-production—was created by David E. Kelly disciple Jeff Rake and co-exec produced by Robert Zemeckis.
Manifest is focused on the crew and passengers of a commercial airliner, which disappears, then suddenly reappears, five years after everyone onboard is presumed dead. It first premiered on NBC in September 2018. NBC cancelled the show in May after steadily declining linear ratings. After the cancellation announcement in June, the series’ fans urged Netflix to make a fourth season of the show. Rake took to Twitter himself, thanking these “Manifesters,” while touting a six-season story plan for the show he said he’d had in his back pocket since the beginning.
In June, Rake told Entertainment Weekly that that he is contemplating a feature-length movie to bring closure to the series.
In July it was reported that NBC and Netflix were having second thoughts about not picking up the series and were in talks about making a fourth season of the show. Still no word if they reignite the series.
Meanwhile, the third-season premiere of Netflix’s Virgin River drew 1.449 billion viewing minutes, putting the drama in the No. 2 spot overall. It’s an impressive number given the third season premiered on July 9, giving viewers just three viewing days.
Netflix renewed Virgin River for a 10-episode third season in December 2020. The show follows a midwife and nurse (Alexandra Breckenridge) who relocates from Los Angeles to a northern California town where drama ensues.
Virgin River was the most watched original SVOD series for the week of July 5-11.
Amazon Prime’s The Tomorrow War, starring Chris Pratt dropped from No. 2 to No. 3 week over week. During the week ending July 11 the film drew 1.099 billion viewing minutes.
A time traveling alien invasion thriller also starring J.K. Simmons,
Sam Richardson and Yvonne Strahovski, The Tomorrow War was developed and produced by Skydance and co-financed by Paramount Pictures. The studio had planned to release the film theatrically on last Christmas, but opted instead to sell the film to Amazon for reported $200 million.
In the No. 4 spot, Disney Plus’ latest “Marvel Cinematic Universe” series, Loki, drew 1.08 billion viewing minutes after the debut of its fifth episode, marking the first time the series has surpassed a billion viewing minutes. Loki was also the second most watched original series from the four major U.S. SVOD services for the week of July 5-11.
Also notable was the No. 9 finish by Disney and Marvel’s superhero film Black Widow, which debuted on Disney Plus July 9 as a $30 “Premier Access” premium title. The film garnered 541 million viewing minutes from July 9-11. Disney said earlier that Black Widow, an MCU feature film starring Scarlett Johansson in the titular role, generated $60 million in Premier Access home streaming sales in its first three days.
That premium streaming performance, and the impact it’s had on the film’s simultaneous box office debut, has become the talk of Hollywood in recent weeks, as well as the subject of a lawsuit filed by Johansson against Disney.
Previous Weekly Rankings:
June 28-July 4: Amazon’s $200 Million Bet on Paramount’s ‘The Tomorrow War’ Pays Off
June 21-27: ‘Manifest’ Continues Series Saving Flight Plan on Netflix
June 14-20: Netflix’s ‘Manifest’ Scores the Year’s Biggest SVOD Audience So Far
June 7-13: Netflix’s ‘Sweet Tooth’ Shows Bite for the Week of June 7-13
May 31-June 6: Netflix’s ‘Lucifer’ Bedevils SVOD’s Biggest Audience Since Season 3 of 'Cobra Kai’ Debuted in January
May 24-30: Netflix’s ‘Lucifer’ Has SVOD’s Biggest Week* Since ‘Coming 2 America’ Debuted in Early-March
May 17-23: Zack Snyder’s ‘Army of the Dead’ on Netflix Leads a Rather Lifeless Week for the U.S. Streaming Biz
May 3-9: Netflix’s $100 Million Bet on Sony’s ‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ Pays Off
April 26 - May 2: Netflix’s ‘Shadow and Bone’ Edges Hulu’s ‘Handmade’s Tale' in Rebound Week for the Streaming Biz
April 19-25: Netflix’s ‘NCIS’ Off-net Run Wins Another ‘Easttown and Down' Week for the U.S. SVOD Biz
April 12-18: Disney Plus’ ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Builds to 855 Million Streaming Minutes and a No. 1 Finish
April 5-11: Give Netflix's 'Thunder Force' Five for Winning the Week of April 5-11
March 29 - April 4: Netflix’s ‘The Irregulars’ Tops the Easter Week Charts
March 22-28: - 'Falcon and Winter Soldier' Tops SVOD Originals
March 15-21: - 'Grey's Anatomy' Re-Runs Top SVOD Ranker
March 8-14: - ‘The Crown’ Got Royal Gains from Meghan’s Big Oprah Interview
March 1-7: - Amazon Tops the Charts for the First Time with ‘Coming 2 America’
Feb 22-28: - Netflix’s 'Ginny & Georgia' Leads the SVOD Biz
