The Season 3 premiere of Netflix’s Virgin River generated the second biggest weekly U.S. subscription streaming audience of the year, attracting 2.109 billion viewing minutes for the week of July 12-18, according to Nielsen. It marks the first time in five weeks that Netflix’s streaming of cancelled NBC hourlong drama Manifest has not come in at No. 1
The third season of Virgin River premiered on July 9. Manifest became the most watched program of the year when the series garnered 2.493 viewing minutes during the week ending June 20. Overall, Virgin River generated the fourth biggest weekly audience, according to Nielsen, since last December.
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.
After five weeks at No. 1, Netflix’s Manifest dropped to the No. 2 spot. The 29-episode series garnered 1.294 viewing minutes during the week of July 12-18. That’s down 517 million viewing minutes week over week. Despite the drop, it’s still an impressive number for a cancelled three-season show whose first two seasons began streaming on Netflix June 10. There’s no word yet if any studio is willing to save the supernatural series.
Nielsen reports that Virgin River audiences during the week ending July 18 skewed slightly older and more female than Manifest.
In the No. 3 spot, Disney Plus’ latest “Marvel Cinematic Universe” series, Loki, drew 1.011 billion viewing minutes after the debut of its sixth and final episode. Despite being down by 69 million views week over week, Loki moved up a spot in Nielsen’s overall weekly rankings.
The fourth and final season of Netflix’s original series Atypical, which premiered on July 9, drew 603 million viewing minutes, placing the 38-episode coming-of-age comedy in the No. 6 spot.
Focused on Sam Gardner —a 19-year-old on the autism spectrum—the fourth season of Atypical focuses on unexpected challenges. The series features Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Rapaport and Brigette Lundy-Paine.
The third season of Atypical debuted in November 2019. The second and first seasons of the series were released in 2018 and 2017 respectively. The show is written and executive produced by Rashid with Mary Rohlich and Seth Gordon also executive producing.
Netflix’s original movie Gunpowder Milkshake took the No. 8 spot with 543 million viewing minutes. Directed and co-written by Navot Papushado, the film debuted on Netflix on July 14. Gunpowder Milkshake follows a deadly assassin named Sam (Karen Gilan) who was abandoned by her mother, Scarlett (Lena Headley) — also an assassin— at 12 years old. In April Netflix acquired the U.S. rights to the movie from STX Films. Studiocanal fully financed the film and retains the international rights.
According to Nielsen, Gunpowder Milkshake’s audience was 14% Hispanic, 7% Asian and 26% African American.
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
