Netflix’s ‘Heart of Stone’ Shows Continued Strength in Originals | Charts
Netflix has long distinguished itself from the streaming competition through its extensive pipeline of original content, and there is perhaps no greater illustration of that strategy’s success than this week’s Wrap Report for the week of Aug. 7-13.
Netflix originals captured the top four spots on the week’s chart, and five of the top six. This squares with Samba TV data analyzing the first half of 2023 which found that 80% of the top 15 streaming series and 87% of the top 15 streaming movies were Netflix originals. With the bulk of original programming outlays going toward scripted titles for global streamers, these titles continue to reap a return with strong viewership.
Gal Gadot’s second major Netflix original, the action thriller “Heart of Stone,” led the way with 1.8 million U.S. households watching the “Wonder Woman” star play an agent in a global peace-keeping organization. The film was popular with Black, Hispanic and Asian households, which all indexed above the national average. This reflects earlier findings that diverse audiences prefer to seek out TV shows and movies where they see themselves represented.
This is the second time Gadot has delivered a big audience for a Netflix original, as 2021’s “Red Notice” delivered a massive audience of 4.2 million households when it premiered. While “Heart of Stone” paled in comparison to “Red Notice,” the latter likely benefited from fellow cast members Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds, as well as its release timing hitting holiday viewership.
The Wrap Report provides an exclusive first look at the most watched movies and TV series from the past week across both streaming and linear television sourced from viewership trends collected from Samba TV’s panel of more than 3 million households drawn from over 25 million connected TVs, balanced to the U.S. Census.
Coming in second was Season 2 of “The Lincoln Lawyer,”’ which held the top spot in the previous week’s Wrap Report.
“Untold: Johnny Football” held the third spot. The documentary follows Netflix’s recent success with another football series, “Quarterback,” showing that the streamer has found a way to attract big audiences across several different genres and content types.
The fourth entry on the week’s list is another new original for Netflix and yet another example of the breadth of the streamer’s content offerings. “Painkiller,” the based-on-a-true-story drama series looking at the opioid crisis, debuted over the weekend with more than one million households watching over its first four days on the platform.
Further proving the value of original content, three other streamer originals made the top 10 this week, including the debut season of “Special Ops: Lioness” from Paramount+ coming in eighth for its second consecutive week, Season 3 of “Only Murders in the Building” from Hulu coming in ninth, and Season 2 of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” for Amazon Prime Video coming in 10th.
Three movies made the list this week, including another Netflix original, “The River Wild,” an adventure thriller about a whitewater rafting trip that goes awry.
Two feature films, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” on Disney+ and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” on Peacock, remain on the charts at fifth and seventh, respectively.
On the broadcast side, it was yet another summer week dominated by talent contests, game shows and reality programming. “America’s Got Talent” held the top spot for the fourth consecutive week, with additional episodes also coming in at fourth and 10th. CBS’s “Big Brother” is second this week, followed by ABC’s long-running hit “The Bachelorette” at third.
“The Challenge: USA” comes in at fifth this week, and the classics “American Ninja Warrior,” “Wheel of Fortune,” “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “Celebrity Family Feud” round out out the top 10.
Meredith Brace is the chief marketing officer at Samba TV, a WrapPRO partner. Click here for more data and analysis from Samba TV.
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