Disney+ recently witnessed more than half a million downloads over the last weekend globally, following the launch of musical Hamilton on the platform.
The Walt Disney owned streaming service mobile app was downloaded 513,323 times globally, according to research firm Apptopia’s data.
Disney released a film recording of the hit Broadway musical on the OTT platform on 3 July. Hamilton, created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, is a rap musical in which African-American and Latino actors play the founding fathers of the United States.
It tells the story of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. Inspired by the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, the show’s music draws heavily from hip hop, as well as R&B, pop, soul, and traditional-style show tunes. Owing to this use of modern storytelling methods, Hamilton has been described as being about “America then, as told by America now.”
Since its first opening, Hamilton has received critical acclaim. The show premiered at the Public Theater, Off-Broadway on 17 February , 2015, where its engagement was sold out. It won eight Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Musical, and was then transferred to the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway, opening on 6 August, 2015, where it received uniformly positive reviews and strikingly high box office sales.
At the 2016 Tony Awards, Hamilton received a record-setting 16 nominations, eventually winning 11 awards, including Best Musical. It received the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Earlier, Disney planned to release the film recording in movie theaters in October 2021, but owing to the pandemic-induced shutting down of cinemas and theaters, prompted the House of Mouse to launch the musical on Disney+.
Last month, ViacomCBS also announced to be releasing the animated family film, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, digitally in the U.S. in early 2021 and then moving it exclusively to CBS All Access.
Disney+, which launched in November last year, had nearly 71.5 million mobile app downloads globally, prior to the weekend rise, Apptopia said. In India, Disney+ launched through Hotstar had eight million subscribers within a week of its launch on 3 April.