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Netflix says “The Queen’s Gambit” is the most watched limited series in its history. Some 62 million households saw the show about A Chess Prodigy in the first four weeks of its release.
“The Queen’s Gambit” is Netflix’s premier hit, a scripted drama created by an award-winning filmmaker about an imperfect protagonist who explores a very specific corner of the world. This is the type of hit that Netflix excelled at in its early days and had struggled to find at times over the past couple of years.
The Data Point comes with a few big caveats, but “The Queen’s Gambit” is a big hit by any measure. It ranks among the most watched Netflix series of all time and has single-handedly revitalized interest in chess. Sales of chess games have increased 87% since the show began, and sales of chess books have climbed 603%.
Yet “The Queen’s Gambit” will also have escaped the cultural zeitgeist before the end of the year. Netflix has created an ecosystem where there are new quirks every two weeks. “The Queen’s Gambit” has supplanted “Emily in Paris” at the top of the Netflix charts, and will inevitably be overtaken by “The Crown”, or “Selena” or “Cobra Kai”.
These short bursts of interest represent a new era in media created by the abundance of the internet, according to media manager Tal Shachar:
“We only see larger and larger fashions at faster rates. That we have more diversity than ever before, and yet less at all times. “
Disney, Netflix’s biggest competitor, uses a different strategy, one that Shachar captures in the second part of this paragraph.
“It also means that more and more, the real value or the trick won’t be exploding… but rather hanging on to the 15 seconds of fame once we have it.
As Netflix garners attention with an endless barrage of new material, Disney is creating a handful of great moments and franchises, some of which have remained in the culture for nearly a century. Its streaming service flourished with a single show, “The Mandalorian,” itself based on a 1977 film.
“The Mandalorian” is much more in demand online than “The Queen’s Gambit,” according to Parrot Analytics.
Some smart people on Twitter argued that Disney would have been ready for this chess wave and pre-licensed a bunch of chess sets to collect some of the revenue. After its success, maybe Disney would create themed chess stations on its cruises and hotels. I regret to inform these people that chess is not a lucrative sideline.
But I wonder if Disney would even bother with “The Queen’s Gambit”. It’s an adult drama that features drug abuse and has almost no potential for merchandising. Disney knows the money is in making shows that speak to kids but also appeal to adults. How many parents bought Baby Yoda Halloween costumes this year?
In the old days of linear television, we relied on Nielsen ratings to quantify the popularity of shows and compare their respective strengths. Now? We are left with self-reported numbers, third-party estimates, or no numbers at all.
But even without comparable numbers, each show embodies a contest between Netflix and Disney for the soul of Hollywood. Netflix released all of the episodes of its show at the same time, maximizing attention for about a month, while Disney rolled out episodes every week, giving its customers a reason to come back every week.
A third show, HBO’s “The Undoing,” debuted in between. Like the best shows on HBO, it built its audience as the episodes unfolded.
These distinctions made it more interesting to cover the competition between these companies, assessing which strategies work and which do not.
And yet, in Hollywood’s never-ending march to monoculture, Netflix and Disney are struggling to replicate the strengths of their biggest competitor. Disney doesn’t have enough new shows in the pipeline to generate sustained interest, a fact it is trying to address with a recent corporate restructuring to prioritize streaming. Netflix wants to maintain its successes longer and build franchises, so replenishing the well becomes a little easier.
Maybe I’ll have a Disney chess set after all. – Lucas Shaw
The best of Screentime (and other things)
Dave Chappelle vs. Viacom
In a short set of stand-ups uploaded to On his Instagram, the comedian asked his fans to boycott “Chappelle’s Show”, and criticized ViacomCBS for not sharing the benefits of his work.
Chappelle revealed that he originally pitched the idea for “Chappelle’s Show” to HBO, which turned it down. He had recorded his first stand-up special for HBO, but hasn’t worked with the network since then.
Comedy Central bought the idea, but it robbed it of any control over its future. Chappelle says he was a young comedian who needed the money and took the best deal available.
But nearly 20 years later, Chappelle is one of the world’s most famous comedians, and he has no control over the project that made him famous.
Chappelle reserved praise for one media company: Netflix, which agreed to remove the old licensed episodes. This means that Netflix is paying Viacom not to offer the show. It’s just another cost of doing business with the comedian, who has recorded several specials for Netflix over the past few years. (The show is still on HBO Max.)
Beyonce leads Grammy nominations
Beyonce won nine nominations, the most artist count, in a year where women dominated the field. Two female pop stars, Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa, received six nominations each while The Weeknd was excluded.
For the very first time, all the nominees in the category of best rock performances are women.
Sony’s PlayStation 5 is sold out
People have camped out in electronics stores to buy the latest video game consoles.
Offers offers offers
Weekly playlist
Every once in a while the Grammys introduce me to new music. Discover The Black Pumas; I listened to their new album for about eight hours this week.
Columbia Entertainment Company
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