Josh Hartnett in Below.
Courtesy of Netflix
There are a few things that happen every year in the Nielsen streaming ratings: Christmas movies like Home Alone and Elf chart for a few weeks in December. Gilmore Girls pops back up in the fall (as discussed recently). And in mid- to late October, Halloween-related movies and shows get some time in the spotlight.
It’s no different this year — and maybe even more Halloween-tinged than usual, given that several streamers released horror series in the past few weeks. Three of the top five series — Netflix’s Below, Prime Video’s Carrie and Peacock’s Crystal Lake — fall in the horror genre. American Horror Story (whose current season premiered in late September) is still in the rankings too. And on the movie chart, perennials Hocus Pocus and The Nightmare Before Christmas made returns to the top 10.
For someone raised on network TV like me, it’s kind of comforting. Broadcasters still go heavy on holiday programming from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, but other seasonal specials have fallen away (or moved to streaming), and movies aren’t as regular a part of the primetime schedule as they once were. But the fact that people find these shows and movies year after year is kind of cool. Monoculture isn’t really a thing the way it used to be (whether that’s good or bad is a whole other discussion), but it’s cool that there’s still some collective want to seek out these kinds of shows and movies when the season rolls around.
The streaming top 10s in the United States for Oct. 12-18 are below.
