Prime Video's latest blockbuster series is reportedly one of its biggest ever. News has hit that Citadel, a new espionage series starring Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, did fantastic numbers in its first week.
Launching on April 28th, Citadel is the number 1 show, movie or special on Prime Video right now. It sits ahead of (in order) the final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Power, comedian Jimmy O. Yang's comedy special Guess How Much? and Reacher. But that's just a crumb of the story.
Collider reports that its sources claim that Citadel "is already breaking records by becoming the platform's second most popular series ever." What's the top show ever? Well, the article goes on to note that Citadel is trailing behind The Rings of Power.
On top of that, Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke posted on Instagram that Citadel "attracted one of the largest global audiences in the history of Prime Video." Amazon definitely needs this win, as the series, which comes from The Russo Brothers (Avengers: Endgame), reportedly saw its budget grow from $160 million to $235 million during shoots.
Then, Deadline cited a "source close to the production" that said Citadel was following Rings of Power on "follows only Prime Video’s LOTR: Rings Of Power in launch numbers."
Analysis: Early numbers are great, but will Citadel sustain this interest?
Mentioning The Rings of Power's viewership will always make me a little suspicious. That's thanks to The Hollywood Reporter's sources who said TRoP only had a 37% completion rate in the US.
How bad is that? Well, insiders claimed that 50% "would be a solid but not spectacular result."
So, this makes me wonder about how if these claims of Citadel's success are coming too early. If a massive ton of people started both Rings of Power and Citadel, they could still wind up with enough people who stick around to make it worth it all.
These announcements that a show is doing very well also seem like a way to drive audiences to care more about a show's success. If you think everybody's watching something, you'll feel a need to watch it too, so you're not missing out.
