Looking at the top series premieres of Q2 2021, we compared demand for each of these new series in the first 30 days following their release. Likely surprising no one, Loki from Disney+ was the most in-demand premiere of Q2. It was the new series which had the highest demand in the United States in its first 30 days - 36.2 times the average series demand.
Coming in second, solidly behind Loki, but still well ahead of the rest of the pack, was Netflix’s Shadow and Bone. This new show, based on a series of young adult novels averaged 26.9 times the average series demand in its first 30 days.
Rounding out the top 3 is the critically acclaimed Mare of Easttown from HBO which had 17.9 times the average series demand. This puts its performance much closer to the remaining series in the top 10 premieres than it is to the 2 most in-demand premieres of Q2.
There has been a good balance this quarter among the top premieres in terms of platform representation. In the top 6 premieres of the quarter, 2 each came from Disney+, Netflix, and HBO. It is interesting to compare the top premieres from HBO this quarter - Mare of Eastown (#3, 17.9x), The Nevers (#5, 16.4x), and Hacks (#10, 11.9x). Clearly HBO is still reserving the most in-demand new content for its linear channel, while Hacks was a streaming original on HBO Max.
Seeing the performance of Jupiter’s Legacy following its premiere (15.7x the average series demand in its first 30 days) and that it just came ahead of Sex/Life (14.8x) it is easier to understand why Jupiter’s Legacy was quickly cancelled. The superhero show cost $200 million (not including the $100 million price tag Netflix paid to acquire the comic book publisher Millarworld). This is likely far more than it cost to make the romantic drama Sex/Life.
