Data: How Crucial Marvel Properties Like ‘Hawkeye’ Are to Disney+
One of Disney+’s biggest advantages since launch has been its parent company’s ownership of Marvel, which has allowed the SVOD to launch ambitious, nine-figure superhero TV series that fellow streaming newbies like Peacock and Apple TV+ have lacked.
The latest Disney+ Marvel series is “Hawkeye,” which debuted today and takes place after the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. The series should attract meaningful viewership on Disney+, recent survey data suggests.
Whip Media conducted a survey of U.S. TV Time app users age 13+ exclusively for VIP+ on Nov. 19 and 20. Over 96% of respondents (or 696 TV Time app users) said they had used Disney+ before; the remainder of this article reflects the attitudes of these consumers and refers to them simply as “survey respondents.”
About 66% of survey respondents said that they “definitely” intend to watch “Hawkeye,” while just about 10% said they didn’t plan on watching the series, Whip Media found.
The high intent to watch “Hawkeye” suggests that it could be a successful series for Disney+. The company has established a track record for touting its top performers without providing any viewership data, like “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”
But even without a Disney-disclosed figure, it’s reasonable to still assume that Anthony Mackie-starring series was one of the more-watched Marvel series on Disney+, since the majority of survey respondents said they had competed watching it.
“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” “WandaVision” and “Loki” have likely helped picked up the slack for Disney+ as they lay in between seasons of its flagship series, “The Mandalorian,” which finished rolling out season 2 in December 2020.
Over half of survey respondents said that Marvel TV series are a major reason why they subscribe to Disney+, while almost 9% said the series are the sole reason that they subscribe to the Disney streaming service.
Many Marvel fans go to Disney+ for content beyond things like “WandaVision” and “Loki,” however.
Nearly 63% of survey respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the notion that Marvel series were the only TV shows they watched on Disney+.
This is likely at least in part a reflection of the back catalog of Disney shows (like “Lizzie McGuire” and “That’s So Raven”) that have, until the launch of Disney+, been difficult to stream in one place.