‘She-Hulk: Attorney At Law’ Premiere Ratings Fail To Break Into Nielsen Top 10, Another Failure For Victoria Alonso’s Business Strategy

John F. Trent |

Sep 19, 2022

Data tracking company Nielsen released their viewership data for the week of August 15th to August 21st and Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney At Law series is not on any of their top 10 lists.

(L-R): Mark Ruffalo as Smart Hulk / Bruce Banner and Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer “Jen” Walters/She-Hulk in Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.

She-Hulk premiered on August 18th on Disney+ and was beat by The Sandman, Stranger Things, Never Have I Ever, Locke & Key, Untold, Virgin River, A League Of Their Own, Echoes, Only Murders In The Build, and Instant Dream Home on Nielsen’s Top 10 Original Streaming chart.

As noted below, She-Hulk’s viewership was below 395 million minutes, which was 10th place Instant Dream Home’s viewership minutes.

Nielsen Streaming Viewership for August 15-21, 2022

It’s unclear if She-Hulk: Attorney At Law is the worst performing Marvel Studios television series on Disney+ given Ms. Marvel’s first episode made the charts back on the week ending June 12th with 249 million minutes viewed.

It’s possible She-Hulk: Attorney At Law could have performed better than Ms. Marvel given we only know it was viewed less than 395 million minutes.

(L-R): Renée Elise Goldsberry as Mallory Book and Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer “Jen” Walters/She-Hulk in Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.

Regardless, the show not making the charts is the first Marvel Studios show to not make Nielsen’s Top 10 Original chart. As noted above, Ms. Marvel placed 10th when it debuted with 249 million minutes.

Moon Knight, which debuted on March 30th, was 6th on the Nielsen chart at the time with 418 million minutes viewed.

Hawkeye’s two episode premiere on November 24, 2021 saw viewing minutes hit 853 million.

Loki had 731 million minutes viewed when it premiered back in June 2021. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premiered with 495 million minutes viewed in March 2021.

Finally, WandaVision was viewed 434 million minutes when it premiered back in January 2021.

What is interesting about the Nielsen data is it calls into question other data analytics companies purporting to claim that She-Hulk did on par in its first four days streaming compared to other Marvel Studios shows like WandaVision, Loki, The Falcon and the Winter Solider, and Hawkeye.

Samba TV reported She-Hulk was watched by 1.5 million U.S. households streaming in its first four days available on Disney+.

She-Hulk viewership data as reported by Samba TV

This is comparable to WandaVision, which they claim was watched by 1.6 million households five days after it premiered on Disney+.

It doesn’t match up to the fact that She-Hulk’s viewership did not even hit 395 million minutes viewed as reported by Nielsen while WandaVision did 434 million minutes.

Loki, WandaVision, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier viewership data as reported by Samba TV

Not only does the Nielsen data call into question Samba TV’s reporting, but it also calls into question Marvel Studios’ business model.

Marvel Studios executive Victoria Alonso detailed that business model during an appearance at Annecy International Animation Film Festival back in June 2021.

While answering a question if she ever gets tired of Marvel Studios’ movies topping the box office charts, Alonso said, “The reason we have that success consistently is because our audience is global. You cannot have a global audience and not somehow start to represent it… For us, it was really, really, really important to have that.”

ROME, ITALY – OCTOBER 24: Victoria Alonso attends the photocall of the movie “Eternals” during the 16th Rome Film Fest 2021 on October 24, 2021 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Elisabetta Villa/Getty Images for Marvel)

She continued, “For the longest of time, we heard a woman-led film will never open. I say, ‘Please check, Captain Marvel made a lot of money.’ Then they always told us that Black Panther was never going to open and that nobody wanted a completely Black cast, and that made $1.3B.”

“So you can look at it from the social point of view, the cultural point of view. But truthfully, this is a business. From a fiscal point of view, you are leaving money on the table by not representing,” she explained.

She then provided some numbers about Marvel’s audience, “I think 51% of our audience is female, 28% of our audience is Hispanic. If we don’t represent the people that watch what we make, eventually they’ll go elsewhere because somebody else will figure it out.”

Alonso concluded, “We can only tell stories if we succeed and actually have money to make them. So the idea being, ‘If it makes money, why not make it?’ To me it seemed like a very simple equation, but it took a lot of time, a lot of talking.”

Executive Producer Victoria Alonso attends the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness World Premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Monday, May 2, 2022.
(photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

What do you make of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law not even charting on any of Nielsen’s Top 10 lists?

NEXT: ‘She-Hulk’ Cast And Crew Ecstatic Over Twerking Cameo From Megan Thee Stallion: “She Really Fit Into The Whole Ethos Of What We’re Doing With The Show”

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