The Disney+ “Star Wars” homicide thriller sequence “The Acolyte” acquired first rate opinions 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 sequence’ 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 would not get to revisit the period on display screen any time quickly. Certainly, all of which means “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” undertaking of 2024, but it surely was additionally the yr’s second most seen Disney+ sequence at a powerful 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 tough yr for main franchises
In some circumstances, the information {that a} cancelled “Star Wars” present truly did fairly nicely could be a superb purpose for the fandom to whip up a pleasant little outrage. Nonetheless, aside from the aforementioned undeniable fact that essentially the most vocal followers by no means actually bought behind “The Acolyte,” the present’s viewing numbers include an asterisk. The Luminate report discovered that 2024 was a really tough yr for franchises, which is obvious once 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 sequence of 2023, netting Netflix at least 57.7 billion minutes seen. In the meantime, the most-streamed Disney+ present was one other “Star Wars” sequence within the type of “The Mandalorian,” with 12.3 billion minutes seen.
Whereas that comparability could deflate the tires of “The Acolyte” just a little, it is nonetheless value 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 truthful). In truth, 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 instructed Vulture, the choice to discontinue the costly present was purely monetary:
“In order it pertains to ‘Acolyte,’ we had been pleased with our efficiency, but it surely wasn’t the place we would have liked it to be given the associated fee construction of that title, fairly frankly, to go and make a season 2. In order that’s the explanation why we did not do this.”
“The Acolyte” is at the moment streaming in its entirety on Disney+.
