The Disney+ “Star Wars” homicide thriller collection “The Acolyte” acquired respectable critiques from the critics, however as its considerably abysmal 19% Popcornmeter rating on Rotten Tomatoes proves, the fandom did not precisely embrace the present. Whereas the collection’ Excessive Republic setting might have been a gold mine for “Star Wars,” the fan reception and the present’s cancellation after a single season imply that we’d not get to revisit the period on display screen any time quickly. Certainly, all of which means that “The Acolyte” will go down as a disastrous failure that nobody watched, proper?
Not fairly so. Quite the opposite, the 2024 year-end movie & TV report by leisure business information evaluation firm Luminate has revealed some attention-grabbing numbers about “The Acolyte.” Because it seems, the present was not solely the most-viewed “Star Wars” mission of 2024, but it surely was additionally the yr’s second most seen Disney+ collection at a formidable 2.7 billion minutes. Solely “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” (3 billion viewing minutes) was in a position to carry out higher for the platform.
The Acolyte did nicely throughout a troublesome yr for main franchises
In some circumstances, the information {that a} cancelled “Star Wars” present really did fairly nicely is likely to be an excellent purpose for the fandom to whip up a pleasant little outrage. Nevertheless, other than the aforementioned indisputable fact that probably the most vocal followers by no means actually obtained behind “The Acolyte,” the present’s viewing numbers include an asterisk. The Luminate report discovered that 2024 was a really troublesome yr for franchises, which is evident if you evaluate the two.7 billion minutes accrued by “The Acolyte” with the earlier yr. In January 2024, Nielsen’s information (through Selection) pinpointed the authorized drama “Fits” because the most-watched streaming collection of 2023, netting Netflix at least 57.7 billion minutes seen. In the meantime, the most-streamed Disney+ present was one other “Star Wars” collection within the type of “The Mandalorian,” with 12.3 billion minutes seen.
Whereas that comparability might deflate the tires of “The Acolyte” just a little, it is nonetheless price remembering that its viewing minutes did make it the streamer’s quantity two present of 2024 (that and with “Fits” particularly having 134 episodes versus eight for “The Acolyte,” a one-to-one comparability is not precisely honest). The truth is, Disney has already defined that the cancellation of “The Acolyte” had little to do with its efficiency. As Disney Leisure co-chairman Alan Bergman beforehand informed Vulture, the choice to discontinue the costly present was purely monetary:
“In order it pertains to ‘Acolyte,’ we have been proud of our efficiency, but it surely wasn’t the place we would have liked it to be given the price construction of that title, fairly frankly, to go and make a season 2. In order that’s the rationale why we did not try this.”
“The Acolyte” is at present streaming in its entirety on Disney+.
