Where do movies go 8-12 months after their theatrical opening day? Premium channels. HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and Starz have dominated this field for a long time. Each of the four channels, and their many sub-divisions, offer movies from specific studios. As a longtime customer, and one of the more than 30 million people who currently have HBO, I’ve watched my fair share of the network’s programming and classic movies.
But besides “Game of Thrones”, “Veep” and “Sesame Street”, one of the channel’s key elements to attract audiences is their weekly Saturday Night Premiere Movie.
HBO currently broadcasts films from six studios: 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, Warner Bros., Universal, Focus Features and Summit Entertainment. So far this year, an average 1.4 million people have stayed home on a Saturday night and watched the premiere film. That figure will surely bounce around throughout 2017, but it’s already up from the 2016 avg. of 1.1 million thanks to “The Legend of Tarzan” and “Central Intelligence” scoring debuts of more than 2 million viewers each in February.
TV ratings analysts haven’t always acknowledged the HBO premieres in their ratings roundups, but the films have been included in every weekly chart since May 2015. This Top 13 list of the highest-rated HBO premiere movies since Nov. 2013 does include a few interesting patterns: three films star Dwayne Johnson (who’s on HBO’s own comedy series “Ballers”). Two of them feature Melissa McCarthy and two others have Samuel L. Jackson. There are also a couple of “X-Men” and Superman installments:
1. “San Andreas” – 2.820 million (2016)
2. “Man of Steel” – 2.374 million (2014)
3. “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” 2.331 million (2016)
4. “Fast & Furious 6” – 2.296 million (2014)
5. “Identity Thief” – 2.260 million (2013)
6. “The Legend of Tarzan” – 2.184 million (2017)
7. “The Martian” – 2.180 million (2016)
8. “American Sniper” 2.110 million (2015)
9. “The Wolverine” – 2.096 million (2014)
10. “X-Men: Days of Future Past” – 2.046 million (2015)
11. “Central Intelligence” – 2.018 million (2017)
12. “Kingsman: The Secret Service” – 1.999 million (2015)
13. “The Heat” – 1.997 million (2014)
Sometimes the ratings equate to a film or franchise’s popularity in theaters. Just look at the progression of the “Divergent” Trilogy:
“Divergent” – 1.801 million (2014)
“Insurgent” – 1.242 million (2015)
“Allegiant” – 1.051 million (2016)
Other times, small movies that audiences might have missed get big premieres. In 2015, courtroom drama “The Judge” (which only made $46 million in theaters) out-performed blockbuster “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”: 1.6 million to 1.5 million.
Like a regular movie studio, not all of the HBO Saturday Night features are hits – particularly the family films. “Ice Age: Collision Course”, which debuted last Saturday, only pulled-in 765,000 viewers. In fact, since 2014, the only G or PG-rated movie to score more than a million viewers was “The LEGO Movie”. But HBO is not your traditional “family” network, and it’s tough for the whole family to stay-in on a Saturday night and watch a film you likely already rented or paid money to see in a theater.
Action is what does best. “Independence: Day Resurgence” should score a decent number this Saturday, as well as “Suicide Squad” on April 15.
TV columnists and audiences should take notice: “SNL” isn’t the only program making an impact on Saturday Night.