Hollywood lessons, No. 1 show of the year, Netflix data dump

Good evening from New York City. I just left a women's basketball game and am now enjoying some Lebanese food with a side of ice cream.We've
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Good evening from New York City. I just left a women's basketball game and am now enjoying some Lebanese food with a side of ice cream.

We've announced the initial speakers for the third annual Screentime conference. They include the CEOs of Netflix and Warner Music Group, the head of Instagram, music mogul Irving Azoff and real estate tycoon Rick Caruso. We'll also hear from Willow Bay, the new owner of Angel City FC, and Uday Shankar, head of the biggest media company in India. And we'll have a live taping of The Town with Matt Belloni.

We'll announce more speakers soon, so grab a ticket while you can. The event is in October.

Since we are just past the halfway point of the year, I thought it would be a good time to check in on which films and TV shows have resonated with viewers – and what those hits say about the state of Hollywood. Thank you to my colleague Isabela Fleischmann for the help. But first…

Five things you need to know

Eight lessons from the first half of the year

Netflix's Squid Game was the most-popular original streaming series in the first half of 2025, edging out Amazon's Reacher in the final week.

Netflix dropped the second season of the South Korean drama at the end of last year and the third season at the end of June. The creator of the show shot both seasons together and they play like one season cut in half. While neither the second nor the third has amassed as many views as the first season, all three installments rank among Netflix's 10 most-watched seasons of TV ever. 

Netflix, Amazon and Apple accounted for the five most-watched streaming titles so far this year, according to Nielsen. You can see the Top 10 for the first time right here:

The popularity of Reacher underscores that Amazon's audience likes action. The adaptation of the Lee Child books ranks alongside other popular titles such as Jack Ryan and The Boys, as well as fantasy series like The Rings of Power and The Wheel of Time

After poring over the Nielsen data, a few other things stand out.

Netflix is losing share of streaming 

While Netflix claims three of the top four slots, its dominance over its peers has ebbed.

Its share of the most-watched shows on streaming has declined from more than 80% in 2021 to close to 50%. We published some data on this a year ago, and the trend has continued, per a recent post from Entertainment Strategy Guy.

This isn't all that surprising. Netflix has gone from being one of three major streaming services to one of seven or eight. Rival services have added tens of millions of customers over the last few years. As those services get to scale, their biggest hits can rival Netflix's biggest hits. Amazon, Apple, HBO Max, Hulu and Paramount+ all have shows in the Top 10 so far this year.

HBO has had three legitimate hits in The Last of Us, White Lotus and The Pitt. The only reason you don't see two of them in the Top 10 is they are classified as acquired by Nielsen since they debuted on the HBO linear network. When I did my own analysis, I had The Last of Us and The White Lotus in the Top 10.

Yet no other service delivers as many hits on a consistent basis as Netflix because no other service is used by as many people or spends as much money. While Netflix's share of the top shows is slipping, it still accounts for more hits than every other service combined. It also accounts for more viewing than Disney+, Hulu and Peacock combined. 

Free services are taking share from paid

A bigger concern for Netflix is that its share of TV viewing is flat from a year ago even though streaming gained 6%. This is also true for Disney. Free, advertising-supported services YouTube, the Roku Channel and Tubi are stealing viewers from broadcast and cable.

YouTube now accounts for 12.5% of TV viewing — more than Disney, Amazon, HBO Max, Peacock and Paramount+ combined. Roku is larger than those last three.

Disney and Peacock are missing in action

Two services are missing from the Nielsen Top 10: Disney+ and Peacock. Disney+ has had one hit this this year – Andor. And while it did very well, it's not as popular as the biggest hits on rival services.

Peacock has some work to do. The second season of Poker Face didn't make a huge splash, but maybe Love Island USA can put it on the charts.

Hulu still dominates reruns

Fox and NBC started Hulu to make money from their reruns on the internet. While Hulu, now part of Disney, has invested a lot of money in original series over the last 18 years, its primary purpose for many users is still watching reruns of popular TV on the internet.

Seven of the 10 most popular "acquired" titles, aka reruns, are available on Hulu. Grey's Anatomy, which is also available on Netflix, is the most popular of the bunch. These titles don't change that much year to year, though The Rookie made a strong push this year.

The most-watched rerun of all isn't on Hulu, but it is on another Disney streaming service. That would be Bluey, the Australian kids' show.

Ms. Rachel is the new queen of kids TV

Bluey has some new competition these days. For those unfamiliar, Ms. Rachel is a popular YouTube personality who makes shows for little kids. Netflix recently licensed some of her videos, which have been packaged into TV seasons a la CoComelon.

The first season of Ms. Rachel is the most popular single season of kids' programming on Netflix right now, appearing 23 times in its Top 10 list already.

Ms. Rachel still trails shows like Gabby's Dollhouse and Peppa Pig in total viewership because there are more episodes of those titles on Netflix.

Here is a handy chart, courtesy of kids' media expert Emily Horgan.

The first season of Ms. Rachel ranks somewhere between Nobody Wants This and Black Doves.

The movie business has rebounded — slightly

Global box-office sales are up about 8% from last year. Sales have increased both at home and abroad. It's been a particularly big year for animated titles and kids' movies. The best-selling movie of the year is China's Ne Zha 2, while the best-selling non-Chinese movie is Lilo & Stitch.

For all the optimism, ticket sales are still off about 27% from before the pandemic. Sales through the first half are also down from 2023.

The biggest movies aren't as big as they used to be

One troubling trend for studios is that their biggest hits are smaller than they once were. The 10 biggest movies of the year have grossed an average of $224 million in the US. That is way down from before the pandemic. The global numbers are even worse.

The struggles of Marvel typify this new normal. Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts both clocked in at around $400 million. 

That kind of result was once considered terrible for Marvel. Eternals and Shang-Chi were labeled failures for doing that. Brave New World delivered the worst performance of any Captain America movie. Thunderbolts grossed about half of the first Guardians of the Galaxy.

People go to fewer movies

The existential challenge for theaters is that attendance is down across the board. People are simply going to fewer movies. They still come out for a cultural moment like Minecraft or Sinners. They are staying away from everything else.

This doesn't mean the answer is to just dump movies on streaming. The most-watched movies on streaming so far this year were both released in theaters first: Moana 2, followed by Despicable Me 4. It is insane that streaming services have largely ceded kids' entertainment to YouTube.

The best of Screentime (and other stuff)

Netflix's three keys to success

Netflix will report second-quarter financial results on Thursday, kicking off the next round of media earnings and giving everyone an update on the state of streaming.

The second quarter is usually one of Netflix's weakest, and the service's programming slate was light compared with an upcoming second half that includes Stranger Things, Wednesday and lots of movies. But it did include Squid Game.

The benefit from Netflix's crackdown on password sharing has dissipated, according to new data from Antenna. Its growth in the US has slowed by about 25% from a year ago, when it added more than 17 million customers in the first half. About four million of them hailed from the US and Canada.

Netflix knew this slowdown was coming. It stopped reporting subscriber figures this year and directed investors to focus on traditional financial metrics like sales and profit. As it gets harder for Netflix to add new customers, the company must make more from existing ones. 

The simplest way to do that is to raise prices. Netflix has done so consistently without experiencing a steep jump in cancellations. Its churn now sits north of 2% — it used to be below that mark — but remains the best in the industry.

To manage churn, Netflix can only raise prices so often. That's where advertising enters the picture. Almost half of its sign-ups in the US are choosing plans with advertising, per Antenna.

The company is looking for ways to create additional inventory. Ergo, the small but growing portfolio of live sports.

Superman delivers

The latest take on the classic superhero grossed $217 million worldwide this weekend. That makes four hits in a row for Warner Bros. (five if you count F1, which the studio distributed for Apple).

The film is doing better in the US than abroad. Superman movies have never been as successful as Batman, another DC character, or some of Marvel's top draws. But director James Gunn and Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav wanted to reboot DC studios with the red-caped hero.

Apple snags Formula 1 rights

Barring any last-minute twists and turns, Apple is going to buy the exclusive US TV rights to Formula 1 racing for about $150 million a year.

This is the third major sports rights package for Apple, which is also the home to Major League Soccer and some baseball games. As with the MLS, Apple took rights that everyone else more or less rejected. 

ESPN, which had the previous deal for about $80 million, balked at the increase F1 desired. Netflix, which helped popularize the sport in the US with Drive to Survive, did as well. 

Rather than accept less money from a more established player, Formula 1 went with the biggest check. The good news is that Apple just made a very successful racing movie. The danger is that the audience for Apple's streaming service remains paltry compared with its peers. Some anonymous MLS officials have grumbled that the deal with Apple has hurt the sport.

The No. 1 song in the world is…

Golden from the Netflix movie KPop Demon Hunters. The musical from Sony Pictures Animation isn't just a hit movie. Its album is one of the most popular in the world right now. Golden is a Top 3 song on both Spotify and YouTube while a half-dozen other songs from the album are in the Spotify Global Top 50.

Deals, deals, deals

Weekly playlist

Clipse has a new album. That is all.

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