A Year Of Paramount+: A JustWatch Look Back
Amidst the ongoing battle for eyeballs between the litany of big streaming platforms, a fight we have called the “Streaming Wars” in past blog entries, several new and persistent entities have emerged. Paramount+, formerly CBS All Access, is making a concerted push for a good chunk of the market, having yanked some of its biggest properties (most notably Star Trek shows) as free streaming options available on other streamers.
The newly revamped Paramount+ emerged on March 4th, 2021 to considerable fanfare. During its first year of life on the streaming stage, Paramount+ was able to capture plenty of consumer interest. By the conclusion of 2021, 3% of all JustWatch users were on the prowl for the services of Paramount+.
Our friends at JustWatch have sent us a fascinating appraisal of the most-searched titles available on the nascent streaming platform during its first year of life amidst the big boys like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu. Paramount+ may not have reached the heights of fellow recent upstarts HBO Max or Disney+, but with big bucks courtesy of its corporate overlords at Viacom behind it, Paramount+ may be with us for a good long while. Speaking of the “Streaming Wars,” we have a new casualty to report: Discovery+ is set to be gobbled up by HBO Max following the merger of their two parent companies. It’s certainly possible that future mergers could account for future streamer deaths.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the first big post-coronavirus vaccine blockbusters, A Quiet Place Part II (2021), served as the single-most sought-after movie on JustWatch during the first year of Paramount+’s existence. Its 2018 predecessor was the fifth-most searched movie on JustWatch. Together, they accounted for 32.4% of the most-searched titles during the initial frame.
Below you’ll find their full list.
The Paramount+ original science fiction thriller Infinite, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Mark Wahlberg, enjoyed a robust showing with the fourth-most JustWatch engagement. Re-watchable recent adult-oriented Paramount titles featuring Matthew McConaughey, Interstellar (2014) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), round out the top five. Some “TV movie” spin-offs of popular animated properties from last year, South Park: Post COVID and Paw Patrol: The Movie, pepper the list. Clifford: The Big Red Dog (2021), the first live-action adaptation of the popular children’s book series, unsurprisingly made the cut. The original Jackass: The Movie (2002) was also a big target for JustWatch users.
The only movie made before the turn of the century to qualify for the top 10 most-searched Paramount+ titles is, fittingly, one of the best pictures in its catalogue. The riveting first Indiana Jones adventure, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), occupies the final slot in JustWatch’s top 10 list. Thank goodness there’s some accounting for taste even these days.