The Julianne Moore vehicle helped attract a mature audience to the service
Apple CEO Tim Cook owes Julianne Moore a gift basket — and maybe a MacBook Pro, too, while he’s at it.
why? Because “Sharper,” the new psychological thriller starring Moore and Sebastian Stan, among others, was the fifth most-streamed movie of the Feb. 17-19 weekend in the US, easily propelling Apple TV+ to its best showing of 2023 to this point .
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In fact, “Sharper” was the first Apple TV+ flick to crack Whip Media’s Top 10 movie ranker this year. (Whip Media’s rankings are based on viewer data from TV Time, its TV and movie tracking app with more than 25 million global registered users.)
“Sharper” has received a fairly warm reception from both viewers and critics so far, with the movie currently sporting an audience score of 72% on Rotten Tomatoes. TV Time users seem to be enjoying it, too, with “Sharper” earning a 4.2 star rating (out of 5) from viewers, according to Whip viewership data.
Top streaming movies, Feb. 17-19, US (Whip Media)
About 56% of the movie’s streaming audience have been men so far, but perhaps the most interesting aspect of Whip’s demographic data is that “Sharper” has a fairly mature audience, with nearly 60% of its viewers being 40 or older.
One more point on Apple TV+: While this marked the first week one of its movies entered the top 10 in 2023, its TV shows have been performing quite well of late. And this week was no different, with “Shrinking,” the new comedy-drama starring Harrison Ford and Jason Segel, and “Servant” both ranking among the top 10 most streamed TV shows of the past week, according to Whip Media’s TV data.
Outside of “Sharper,” the top 10 for last weekend includes a number of recurring hits, including “Your Place or Mine,” with the Ashton Kutcher-Reese Witherspoon rom-com pushing Netflix into the No. 1 spot for the second straight week . Similarly, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” won the silver medal for the second week in a row.
Overall, Netflix netted four of the top 10 spots, thanks to strong recent performers like “You People” and “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” Viola Davis’ “The Woman King” was the only new Netflix movie to make the list this week.
And before wrapping up, it’s worth noting “Ant-Man and the Wasp” received a nice boost from the “Quantumania” sequel hitting theaters last week, earning the ninth slot. We’ve seen this trend before: The original “Top Gun” enjoyed a noticeable streaming boost last summer thanks to “Maverick’s” success, for example. Unfortunately, that trend didn’t hold true for Michael J. Fox’s “Teen Wolf” when “Teen Wolf: The Movie” debuted on Paramount+ a few weeks back.
Sean Burch is a marketing insights analyst at Whip Media, a WrapPRO partner. Click here for more from Whip Media.
