Image: Elemental
As of October, Netflix had the most demand for movies on its platform. Netflix has overtaken Max in this measure only in the past quarter - historically Max has had the most in-demand movie catalog of SVODs in the US. Amazon Prime Video comes in a close third behind Max but beyond the top three platforms there is a sharp drop off in the demand for other platforms’ movie catalogs.
Looking at the average demand for films on these streamers reveals differing approaches. Netflix may have the highest demand for its catalog but this is driven in large part by the quantity of movies available to stream on Netflix. The average demand for a movie on Max was 4.1 times the average movie demand in October. This is more than twice the average demand of movies on Netflix (2.0x). Ultimately this means that Max has been able to reach a similar level of demand for its movie catalog to Netflix (96% of the total demand of Netflix’s movie catalog) with fewer than half the movies available on Netflix.
Disney+ actually has the highest average demand for the movies available to stream on the platform (6.2x). This is driven by the big hits it has on its platform from brands like Marvel and Pixar. In October, Pixar’s Elemental was the most in-demand movie streaming on Disney+ in October with 44 times the average movie demand for the month.
However, Disney+’s smaller catalog means that in aggregate, total movie demand on the platform doesn’t quite measure up to the three leaders - Netflix, Max, and Prime Video. Max’s ability to deliver a catalog of films with total demand on par with the market leader, but with only half as many titles as Netflix shows how it has built a catalog of films audiences are more excited about. This type of less-is-more approach to programming is likely an upside for platform users struggling to sort through the glut of content that has come to define the streaming era.
