Good day to you, and welcome to another installment of The Monitor, WIRED’s culture news roundup. We had a busy weekend with WIRED25, but there was a lot of news happening outside of San Francisco as well. Let’s get you all caught up.
Disney+ Could Have More Than 100 Million Subscribers by 2025
Of all the fronts in the streaming wars, the battle over subscribers is arguably the biggest. Now, new numbers from the firm Digital TV Research show just who will be winning that fight. According to a new report, Netflix will lead the pack with some 235.6 million subscribers by 2025. Amazon is expected to follow with 135.9 million, Disney+ with 101.2 million, HBO Max with 30.1 million, and Apple TV+ with 27.1 million. Considering Disney+ hasn’t even launched yet—it goes out to consumers tomorrow—those numbers are pretty impressive. Though, when you take into account everything in Disney’s catalog, from Marvel to Star Wars, those subscriber figures aren’t surprising, either.
Doctor Sleep’s Opening Weekend Was Dismal—in a Bad Way
Doctor Sleep, based on the work of Stephen King and set years after the events in The Shining, was supposed to be scary. What was less expected, though, is how much it’s horrified Hollywood. The movie made a dismal $14.1 million domestically over the weekend, a lot less than the $25 to $30 million it was projected to bring in. Indeed, Deadline is now reporting the movie could lose somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million for Warner Bros. Scary stuff, indeed.
Avengers: Endgame and Stranger Things Are Popular with the People
Finally, some happy news: The People’s Choice Awards took place last night and Avengers: Endgame took home the prize for Movie of 2019. Netflix’s Stranger Things won the honor of Show of 2019, and the show’s star, Millie Bobby Brown, also took home the honors for Female TV Star of the Year. Zendaya had a big night as well, winning Female Movie Star for her role in Spider-Man: Far From Home (and Female Drama TV Star for her work on HBO’s Euphoria).
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