HBO Max's 'Friends' reunion drove more sign-ups than any of its other releases this year, new data suggests

• New data suggests the "Friends: The Reunion" drove more HBO Max sign-ups than any of Warner Bros.' new movies in 2021.
• Warner Bros. is releasing all of its 2021 movies to theaters and Max simultaneously.

It looks like HBO Max's "Friends" reunion special was a massive hit for the WarnerMedia streaming service.

"Friends: The Reunion," which debuted May 27 after a year-long delay due to the pandemic, drove more sign-ups to Max in its opening weekend in the US than any of Warner Bros.' new movies so far this year, according to the analytics company Antenna.

Antenna pulls data from a variety of opt-in panels like budgeting apps to track purchase and transaction data, not including free trials.

Last year, WarnerMedia announced that all of Warner Bros. 2021 movies would be released to theaters and on Max on the same day. The "Friends" special drove more sign-ups than those released so far this year, including "Mortal Kombat" and "Godzilla vs. Kong," as well as "Zack Snyder's Justice League," a Max exclusive.

The chart below illustrates the difference:

"Wonder Woman 1984," which was released to theaters and Max simultaneously in December, is still Max's biggest sign-ups driver so far, according to Antenna.

But as vaccinations have risen in the US this year and more movie theaters have opened, viewers have seemed more comfortable heading to cinemas.

"Godzilla vs. Kong," for instance, is nearing $100 million at the domestic box office. It opened with $48 million domestically in March, a pandemic-best opening at the time (which was recently topped by Paramount's "A Quiet Place Part II").

Warner Bros. has largely dominated the box office so far this year despite its movies streaming simultaneously on Max. But as other studios finally release their delayed tentpoles, like Disney's "Black Widow" and Universal's "Fast and Furious 9," there could be more of a balance at the box office.