This Week’s MPN Podcast: Most Popular Streamed Movies and Shows of 2022; Most Anticipated Content Coming in January
January 4, 2023
On this week’s episode of the Media Play News podcast, hosts Charles Parkman and Charlie Showley cover the year’s most popular streamed movies and shows according to data compiled by JustWatch.
They debate the pros and cons of the lists, while sharing some of their own insights about what they’d seen during the year. In general, moviegoers returned to theaters in droves for the first time since the pandemic, but streaming was still a very popular way to watch new movies. For example, Spider-Man: No Way Home set records for one of the largest theatrical releases of all time, yet was still the No. 4 most streamed movie of the year.
Unsurprisingly, the No. 1 most popular streamed movie was Top Gun: Maverick, the surprise smash of the year that made well over a billion dollars during its theatrical run and maintained strong viewership numbers on both streaming as well as physical sales.
For shows, the dueling high fantasy epics of “House of the Dragon” and “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” both held top 10 spots by popularity, but the most popular streamed show was Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” now in its fourth season. Charlie wraps the segment by remarking on the abrupt cancellation of another Netflix show, “1899.”
The following segment looks ahead to January releases of new movies and shows. The hosts were at a loss for most of the announcements, leading them to conclude that Avatar: The Way of Water would face just about no competition for another month in theaters and easily net at least $2 billion before the end of the month.
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One new show that caught their eye was “The Last of Us,” set to premiere on HBO Max. This is a show based on a video game by the same name that both have played, and given its mature and cinematic content led them to both give it a preemptive recommendation.