Summer Becomes New Battleground For Streaming Sci-Fi and Superheroes

One of the most old-fashioned aspects of broadcast TV was the seasonality of its releases. New seasons of shows were typically released in the early fall, which matched viewer patterns that demonstrated TV watching was popular in the fall and winter but fell off during the summer months.

Streaming services began following that pattern, often saving their biggest releases for the Thanksgiving season. Summer was never a big target for streaming services, but that trend is changing with the evidence that streamers are just as active during those months. According to Nielsen, not only do streamers exhibit no seasonal variation in their habits, but four platforms had record viewership shares in June of 2022.

Big-name sci-fi and superhero content especially are beginning to see more frequent summer releases. Several major streaming services released a tentpole sci-fi or superhero show in the summer of 2022. “Obi-Wan Kenobi”, “The Boys”, “Ms. Marvel”, “Stranger Things” all came out between May 27 and June 8th, showing that services like Disney+ weren’t afraid to put marquee titles on streamers to compete with their own theatrical movies.

Movie theaters used to rely on superhero movies and other such tentpoles to bring audiences in during the summer. But first quarter attendance at theaters in 2022 was down 40% compared to the first quarter of 2019, and that content is shifting more and more to streaming platforms.

Studios are seeing the benefits of marrying releases on streaming platforms to theatrical releases. Warner/Discovery CEO David Zaslav explained the benefit of such a close relationship recently, explaining “you open a movie in the theaters, it has a whole stream of monetization. But more importantly, it’s marketed and it builds a brand. And so when it does go to the streaming service, there is a view that that has a higher quality that benefits the streaming service.” It is no coincidence that “Ms. Marvel” began streaming right between theatrical releases of “Doctor Strange” and “Thor: Love and Thunder”

To be sure, the fall schedule will still be very busy for streaming services this year. Tentpole shows like “The Rings of Power” on Prime Video and “The House of the Dragon” on HBO Max will be huge draws this fall. But “Stranger Things Volume 4” became Netflix’s most-watched English language show after just 17 days, and the potential for summertime growth will only get hotter.