Godzilla vs. Kong gave HBO Max its biggest week of 2021 so far.
TV analytics company TVision told Variety that the week of March 28 saw more panel members spend time on the streaming service than any other week in 2021. Overall, since HBO Max's launch last year, Godzilla vs. Kong's release week gave HBO Max its third-highest viewership following the week Wonder Woman 1984 released and the following week. Coming in at fourth and fifth were spikes during the week in December when HBO Max launched on Roku and this February's release of Judas and the Black Messiah. And while the report doesn't specifically mention it, a graph makes it clear that the debut of Zack Snyder's Justice League only came in third for the year.
These latest numbers aren't the entire story though. As HBO Max has joined Netflix and other streaming services in not revealing specific viewership numbers, a collection of different methods have emerged to determine how big of a hit movies and TV shows are online. Samba TV, for instance, claimed 3.6 million households watched at least five minutes of Godzilla vs. Kong on opening night, compared to Wonder Woman 1984's 2.2 million. And according to Variety, Godzilla vs. Kong "accounted for 8.1% of U.S. streams of the top 100 most watched movies among two million Reelgood users from April 2-4," with The Little Things coming in second (7.4 percent) during its debut window. Zack Snyder's Justice League and Wonder Woman 1984 landed third and fourth place with 6.3 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively, during their opening weekends.
Regardless of the metric used, Godzilla vs. Kong is a huge hit, breaking the record for the biggest domestic pandemic debut in theaters and scoring a Fresh certification on Rotten Tomatoes.
Legends collide in "Godzilla vs. Kong" as these mythic adversaries meet in a spectacular battle for the ages, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Kong and his protectors undertake a perilous journey to find his true home, and with them is Jia, a young orphaned girl with whom he has formed a unique and powerful bond. But they unexpectedly find themselves in the path of an enraged Godzilla, cutting a swath of destruction across the globe. The epic clash between the two titans -- instigated by unseen forces -- is only the beginning of the mystery that lies deep within the core of the Earth.
Directed by Adam Wingard and written by Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein, Godzilla vs. Kong stars Alexander Skarsgard, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry. The film is now in theaters and on HBO Max.
Source: Variety