Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans‘ holiday action movie Red One pulled a record-breaking 50 million worldwide viewers in its first four days on Prime Video. That’s the most watched Amazon MGM Studios’ film ever on the OTT service, besting Road House from March 21 which clocked 50M global viewers alone in its first two weekends.
Red One, produced by Johnson’s Seven Bucks and directed by Jake Kasdan, dropped on Prime Video on Thursday, Dec. 12 after a 28-day theatrical window. The $200M feature production was originally greenlit to go straight to Prime Video but after the movie tested favorably, Amazon MGM Studios pivoted to a theatrical release. The notion is that theatrically launched movies fare better on the service, and well, here’s the proof in the pudding.
Red One opened on Nov. 15 stateside and has made over $175M worldwide to date. The movie continues to play in 3,003 U.S./Canada theaters and eased only -39% in its fifth domestic weekend of $4.2M even though it dropped on Prime Video. It’s also playing in 3,300 theaters abroad. Red One earned an A- Cinemascore and a 90% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Given the audience response to Red One both in theaters and on Prime Video, the film will clearly be a perennial holiday favorite for years to come,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios. “Every film is different, and we are so grateful for the partnership with our filmmakers in collectively finding the right strategy to get this film in front of the widest possible audience. With Red One, there was no doubt that strategy needed to include a theatrical release and associated marketing campaign, which drove audiences to theaters and generated awareness for the film with viewers who would ultimately tune in on Prime Video. It’s rewarding to see our plan pay off for customers, and we are incredibly thankful to the entire filmmaking team and cast who helped make it happen.”
Prime Video is celebrating the streaming performances this year from Cross, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, The Boys Season 4, The Idea of You, Fallout, Road House, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. On the horizon, the studio is releasing films and series such as Beast Games (on Prime Video December 19), The Fire Inside (only in theaters December 25), On Call (on Prime Video January 9), and You’re Cordially Invited (on Prime Video January 30).
Red One talent traveled the globe with press and fan stops in Berlin, London, and New York. The movie’s trailers clocked more than 460 million combined views worldwide. Additionally, the studio brought Red One to one of the top ten games on Roblox, Anime Defenders, for a custom Red One-themed raid that garnered more than 163 million global game visits and 337 million video views in its three-week integration. Anime Defenders recently brought back the Red One raid to celebrate the release of the film on Prime Video. Among the movie’s promo partners were M&MS, Farmers, LG, Duracell, and Salt & Straw. There was also a custom spot for the movie on Prime Video’s TNF during the Ravens/Bengals game.
