Pixar’s ‘Luca’ Was The Most-Streamed Movie of 2021

Fans were saddened last year when Pixar Animation Studios’ Luca made the move from a theatrical release to Disney+. However, thanks to new data from Deadline via Nielsen, the move proved to be more successful than many would have ever thought.

Luca was the most-streamed movie in the U.S. in 2021. The film racked in 10.6 billion minutes of viewing. Disney+ has been a massive boost to its animation division Encanto has had a massive resurgence thanks to Disney+, the film is seeing record-breaking numbers on the streaming side of things. Turning Red is up next and the studio has all the faith in the world that it will do wonders like Soul, Luca, and Encanto before it.

Luca wasn’t the only streaming winner for The Walt Disney Company. Rounding out the top 15 most-streamed movies in the U.S. in 2021 includes Moana, Raya and the Last Dragon, Frozen 2, Frozen, Soul, Cruella, Jungle Cruise, Black Widow, Coco, and Avengers: Endgame. Disney was able to fend off streaming giants in the rankings as Netflix, despite spending heavily on original movies and starting to market the fact that it is releasing at least one major film each week, ended up with just three of the top 15 titles. Amazon, whose Prime Video service also invested significant sums in movies, netted just one title on the movie chart, The Tomorrow War. Notably, out of the 45 total slots in the Nielsen rankings, Prime Video occupied just two. A thing to keep in mind, HBO Max doesn’t allow Nielsen to publish its viewing data.

Read: Walt Disney Animation Studios CCO Jennifer Lee Writing a New Project

Disney and Pixar’s original feature film Luca is a coming-of-age story about one young boy experiencing an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta and endless scooter rides. Luca shares these adventures with his newfound best friend, but all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: they are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface. 

The voice cast features Jacob Tremblay (The Little Mermaid) as Luca Paguro, Jack Dylan Grazer (Shazam!) as Alberto Scorfano, Emma Berman as Giulia Marcovaldo, Saverio Raimondo as town bully Ercole Visconti, Maya Rudolph (Disenchanted) as Luca’s mom Daniela, Marco Barricelli as Giulia’s dad Massimo, Jim Gaffigan (Peter Pan & Wendy) as Luca’s dad Lorenzo,  Sandy Martin as Luca’s grandma, and Giacomo Gianniotti as a local fisherman. Pixar Animation Studios’ 24^th feature film is directed by Academy Award® nominee Enrico Casarosa (La Luna) and produced by Andrea Warren (Lava, Cars 3).  Award-winning composer Dan Romer (Beasts of the Southern Wild, Maniac) created the score.

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