Disney Plus' 'The Mandalorian' crushed Apple's launch shows in audience anticipation

Travis ClarkNov 13, 2019, 03:06 IST

Disney/Lucasfilm

Disney Plus' "The Mandalorian" far exceeded Apple TV Plus' four flagship launch shows in audience demand, according to data from Parrot Analytics provided to Business Insider.
Parrot Analytics measures "demand expressions," the company's globally standardized TV demand measurement unit.
Disney Plus also crushed Apple TV Plus in Twitter mentions on the services' respective launch days, according to social-media analytics company Sprout Social.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Disney's streaming service, Disney Plus, debuted on Tuesday, a little over a week after Apple's own streaming offering, Apple TV Plus, launched.

While Disney Plus is more expensive than Apple TV Plus (the former costs $6.99 per month and the latter costs $4.99 per month), Disney Plus offers far more content. It includes TV shows and movies across Disney's library that includes Marvel and "Star Wars," while Apple TV Plus launched with just eight original shows and one documentary film.

Four of those original scripted shows - "The Morning Show," "See," "Dickinson," and "For All Mankind" - are Apple's prestige adult-oriented titles. The former two were torn apart by critics and, based on data provided to Business Insider, audiences weren't excited about them, either - at least compared to "The Mandalorian," Disney Plus' original "Star Wars" series.

"The Mandalorian" crushed all four of the Apple dramas in audience demand ahead of their respective services' launch days, according to data from Parrot Analytics. Parrot Analytics measures "demand expressions," the company's globally standardized TV demand measurement unit that reflects the desire, engagement, and viewership weighted by importance.

Below is a breakdown of each show's audience demand two days before they premiered, according to Parrot Analytics.

"The Mandalorian" - 19,937,028 demand expressions on November 10
"For All Mankind" - 11,646,743 demand expressions on October 30
"Dickinson" - 8,414,199 demand expressions on October 30
"See" - 6,195,761 demand expressions on October 30
"The Morning Show" - 4,312,326 demand expressions on October 30

"The Mandalorian" was well ahead of the other shows but arguably more surprising is how little demand there was for "The Morning Show" compared to the other Apple originals, considering Apple was pushing it as Apple TV Plus' flagship series.

Apple

That's not what Apple was hoping for, as the budget for the series is $300 million for two seasons (or $15 million an episode), according to multiple outlets including Bloomberg and The Hollywood Reporter. (The show's director and producer, Mimi Leder, pushed back on the $300 million figure in an interview with Business Insider and called it "way overblown.")

"The Mandalorian" cost "around $100 million" to make, Disney CEO Bob Iger said, which amounts to $12.5 million an episode.

Disney Plus also beat Apple TV Plus in Twitter mentions on launch day, further showing how much more the former is driving conversation. Disney Plus had 512,676 Twitter mentions by Tuesday afternoon, while Apple TV Plus racked up just 69,904 mentions on its launch day, according to social-media analytics company Sprout Social.

Apple TV Plus could be getting a positive addition to its team, though, that could boost its original content. Former HBO CEO Richard Plepler is in talks to join the service in an exclusive production deal, multiple outlets reported on Tuesday, including The Wall Street Journal, Deadline, and The Hollywood Reporter.

Cookies on the Business Insider India website

Disney Plus' 'The Mandalorian' crushed Apple's launch shows in audience anticipation