Several major blockbuster movies
that were supposed to come out last year have been responding in different ways
to the continuance of pandemic restrictions from 2020 to 2021. Some have
rescheduled as far off as late this year. Others waited for US cinemas to open
at some capacity, while also simultaneously premiering on this or that
streaming platform. Still some have foregone ever opening in a movie-house and
became exclusive streaming releases. Paramount Pictures’ “Coming 2 America,”
sequel to the classic 1988 comedy starring Eddie Murphy, was given over to
Amazon which released it on Prime Video last Thursday. According to them, it is
now the biggest streaming movie premiere.
As IGN puts it, Amazon Prime just declared “Coming 2 America” from Paramount
as the biggest movie premiere of this year, despite showing up on a streaming
service instead of theaters. The digital streaming arm of the e-commerce giant
noted that the research firm Screen Engine/ASI to survey viewership of their
content on Prime Video over the past 12 months, which coincides with the
beginning of COVID-19 being declared a global pandemic. Though they released no
numerical statistics, Amazon says via Screen Engine/ASI that the Eddie Murphy
distant sequel had a massive opening weekend viewership since premiering on
March 4.
Without any concrete figures
publicized, Amazon instead offers comparisons to other streaming film releases,
both on their Prime Video platform and one of their competitors. The internal
comparison is that “Coming 2 America” got more first-weekend views than Amazon
original “Borat Subsequent MovieFilm,” which started streaming October 2020 and
was touted to have gained “tens of millions” in views that month. Externally,
this distant sequel for “Coming to America” had more viewers than the December
streaming release of “Wonder Woman 1984” on HBO Max, which was claimed by that
service to have doubled their subscribers.
“Coming 2 America” has Eddie
Murphy reprise his original film role as Akeem, once-Prince and now-King of
Zamunda in Africa. Compelled by his father’s dying wish to have a male heir
(and his African-American queen having only borne daughters), Akeem returns to
New York to find the son he had out of wedlock (Jermaine Fowler), in order to
secure his own succession before General Izzi (Wesley Snipes) of the
neighboring belligerent nation of Nextdoria decides to invade and annex Zamunda.
It remains on streaming with Prime Video. Murphy has floated the possibility of
a sequel, to be made when he reaches 75 years of age.
Image courtesy of Variety
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