The Amazon musical “Cinderella,” starring Camila Cabello, debuted over Labor Day weekend and was screened in 1.1 million households. According to Deadline, the film was available in over 240 countries that had access to Amazon’s streaming service.
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Amazon is celebrating “Cinderella” as the number one video on demand release over the holiday weekend. “Cinderella delivered the strongest results as the biggest musical of 2021, second only to Disney’s Hamilton in 2020,” they said in a statement.
Samba TV, a company that measures viewership in Smart TVs, showed more data for comparison purposes. In July 2020, 1.8 million households tuned in to watch the live recording of “Hamilton,” on Disney Plus. This June, 693,000 people tuned in to watch “In The Heights” on HBO Max.
While “Cinderella” is the most viewed musical on people’s homes over the year, it trailed behind action films like “The Tomorrow War,” which was watched by 2.4M households over Independence Day weekend.
“Cinderella” is a re-imagination of the original story we’ve all encountered in one form or another over the years. It’s a musical adaptation, featuring popular songs like Madonna’s “Material Girl” and Queen’s “Somebody to Love.” Aside from depicting the traditional story we’re all acquainted with, “Cinderella’s” protagonist, Ella, has bigger ambitions than simply falling in love. She wants to build her own business and have a career in fashion. When discussing the film, director Kay Cannon, who also directed the Pitch Perfect movies, explained why she wanted to cast Camila Cabello as the lead of her film.
“When I watched her “Havana” video, I was like, “Oh, she’s interesting. She is okay being goofy, or making yourself look goofy.” And then, I watched her L’Oreal commercials, and she’s doing a dance to a Queen song, and I was like, “There’s something about her.” So, I was really taken with her, initially. I thought, “She’s comedic, she has good comic timing, she gets it,” said Cannon in an interview with Collider.
Cannon also said that Camila’s personal story made her the right fit for the role, giving it more depth than if someone else were to be cast. “Here is somebody who came to the United States, at five or six years old with her family. They didn’t have anything. They started from nothing. And she had big dreams. You get a sense when you meet her that she has big dreams for herself and she went after those dreams. There have been times in her short life where she’s picked herself and it was a hard decision for her to do that. I felt like she is Cinderella,” she said.
“Cinderella” also stars Nicholas Galitzine, Idina Menzel, Billy Porter and James Corden. It’s available to stream on Amazon Prime.