Image: Netflix
A lot has been made concerning the significant boost in viewership that Conclave, a just lately launched film by Ed Berger concerning the course of of choosing a pope, has acquired across the globe following the passing of Pope Francis earlier this week. Netflix is additionally seeing a noticeable uptick for its film concerning the pope, titled The Two Popes, which first appeared on screens in December 2019. The film is now featured in over two dozen every day high 10s since Pope Francis passed on April 21st on the age of 88.
Starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, with Fernando Meirelles directing, the movie centered on two of essentially the most highly effective leaders within the Catholic Church, who offered their instances for the Church’s future. The film went on to be nominated for 3 Oscars, though, as we’ll come onto shortly, it wasn’t an enormous viewership driver for the streamer upon its preliminary launch.
Apparently, too, Rideback is the manufacturing firm behind the Netflix Unique movie. That firm was run by Dan Lin, who in 2024 took over as head of movie for Netflix.
Following the Pope’s passing, the movie has begun to look within the every day high 10 carousels in choose international locations for the primary time. If we take a look at the every day high 10s, we are able to see that the film has entered the charts in a dozen international locations in whole, with the bulk being predominantly Spanish-speaking international locations in Latin America (which is smart, on condition that’s the place the Pope was born). We’re additionally seeing a handful of different European international locations with the film returning to Netflix’s high 10s. Right here’s how the highest 10s break down to this point:
| April twenty second | April twenty third | April twenty fourth | April twenty fifth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Argentina | – | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Bolivia | – | 10 | 6 | 5 |
| Chile | – | – | 10 | 6 |
| Colombia | – | 8 | 6 | 6 |
| Costa Rica | – | 4 | 6 | 5 |
| Croatia | – | 10 | 6 | 5 |
| Ecuador | – | 4 | 6 | 5 |
| Guatemala | – | 8 | 5 | 5 |
| Honduras | – | 8 | 8 | 5 |
| Hungary | 6 | 8 | 5 | 5 |
| Malta | – | – | – | 8 |
| Mexico | – | – | – | 8 |
| Nicaragua | – | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Panama | – | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| Paraguay | 6 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Peru | – | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| Portugal | – | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| Romania | – | – | 9 | 6 |
| Salvador | – | 7 | 7 | 5 |
| Slovakia | 10 | 8 | 6 | 6 |
| Slovenia | – | – | – | 8 |
| Spain | – | 9 | 8 | 7 |
| Uruguay | – | – | – | 7 |
| Venezuela | – | – | – | 5 |
We’ve seen comparable bumps with different international information occasions for different titles over the previous few years. Following the demise of Queen Elizabeth II, Netflix’s flagship sequence The Crown started climbing the charts once more as folks sought to be taught extra or revisit the award-winning sequence. Final yr, upon the vice presidential nomination of JD Vance, Hillbilly Elegy shot up the Netflix US charts. What’s much less clear when this occurs is whether or not Netflix is giving a title a slight benefit in its algorithm or purposely elevating it (anecdotally, I noticed the film on my important carousel this morning) or whether or not it’s only a large inflow of visitors that then organically pushes it up.
The film was certainly not a standard hit for Netflix when it first launched. Netflix by no means launched any viewing statistics upon its preliminary launch by way of its previous system, which was earlier than the every day high 10s had been launched and definitely earlier than the weekly international high 10s. That was again when Netflix would solely launch viewing tidbits for his or her largest titles utilizing a, trying again, antiquated 2-minute system to measure viewership.
We will see, nevertheless, its efficiency all through 2023 and 2024 by way of the Netflix Engagement Studies, the place we all know the film gained 10.80 million viewing hours, which solely equates to round 5.2 million views. For comparability, in the identical timeframe, different 2019 film releases, equivalent to Marriage Story, garnered 7.2 million views, The Irishman had 28.7 million views, and Dolemite Is My Identify had 3.6 million views. To place its efficiency right into a better perspective, in essentially the most just lately launched Engagement Report, masking viewership from July to December 2024, it was the two,154th most-watched film.
We’ll get to see how a lot of an uplift this has in precise viewing hours and views when the primary half of 2025 report is launched, which is due out alongside the Q2 earnings in July.
Are you rewatching The Two Popes on Netflix? Tell us within the feedback.