‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ Gives Disney+ a Timely Streaming Boost | Chart

Disney+ just had its best weekend in months, thanks to the streaming debut of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”

The third “Ant-Man” flick, which once again features Paul Rudd in the starring role, was the most-streamed movie in the U.S. last week, according to Whip Media’s movie ranker, which is based on viewership data from TV Time, its TV and movie tracking app with more than 25 million global registered users.

That’s a big deal for Disney+. Why? Because it had been a minute since Disney+ topped Whip Media’s movie ranker — back in early February, when “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” landed on the service. (“Wakanda Forever” has been a ranker mainstay since then, with the movie still cracking the top 10 this past weekend landing in the ninth spot.)

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It’s not like Disney+ has had no success of late; “Peter Pan & Wendy,” for example, landed in the second most-streamed spot just a few weeks ago on Whip Media’s ranker. But “Quantumania,” after hitting Disney+ on May 17, clearly gave the service a much-needed boost — especially after Disney recently reported it lost 4 million streaming subscribers last quarter.

Paramount+, meanwhile, benefited from its own big-name streaming debut, with “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” grabbing the second spot this week. This comes after “Honor Among Thieves” hit the service on May 16.

The movie has a star-studded cast (Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Hugh Grant, Sophia Lillis and Rege-Jean Page), but failed to make a major connection with audiences when it was in theaters earlier this year. As TheWrap reported last week, “The film received solid reviews and excellent word of mouth, but the $150 million franchise starter barely topped $205 million worldwide in theatrical earnings.”

A healthy run on Paramount+, at least, could help build momentum for the “Dungeons and Dragons” live-action series that will eventually hit the service.

In other ranker news, Ben and Jen were bumped from the penthouse this week, but they’re still doing fine. Jennifer Lopez’s “The Mother,” which pushed Netflix to the top of the ranker last week, dipped to third place, while Ben Affleck’s “Air” dropped from second to fourth.

And Hulu benefited from the new “White Men Can’t Jump,” which came in as the fifth-most-streamed movie last weekend. The remake of the 1992 classic, starring Jack Harlow and Sinqua Walls as the streetball odd couple made famous by Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes, hasn’t been a big hit with critics or fans, but it at least got a decent number of people to check it out last weekend. It’ll be worth seeing if it can stay in the top 10 next week.

Sean Burch is a marketing insights analyst at Whip Media, a WrapPRO partner. Click here for more from Whip Media.

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