Bob Chapek’s New Streaming Moneyball

‘Hocus Pocus 2’ has become perhaps the quintessential title for understanding modern Hollywood’s identity crisis. If a movie this successful on streaming isn’t going to theaters, what does that mean for other films coming down the pipeline at Disney?

In many ways, Hocus Pocus 2 has become perhaps the quintessential title for understanding much of the anxiety in the industry. Credit: Matt Kennedy/2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Julia Alexander

November 8, 2022

Hocus Pocus 2 has astounded the town with its opening weekend Nielsen numbers on Disney+—in particular, more than 2.7 billion minutes watched, or the equivalent of some 26 million completed views. But this being Hollywood in 2022, analysts and executives and critics couldn’t help but simultaneously count the tens of millions of dollars in revenue that was forfeited by not sending the movie to theaters first. In many ways, Hocus Pocus 2 has become perhaps the quintessential title for understanding much of the anxiety in the industry. If a movie this successful on streaming isn’t going to theaters, what does that mean for other films in the pipeline at Disney?