Borat made his glorious return in the unexpected sequel Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, and not only did it generate a huge political story but it also drew an impressive number of viewers according to Amazon Prime Video. Amazon revealed that during its opening weekend tens of millions of its customers streamed Sacha Baron Cohen’s new film, and within the first few hours of the watch party held on Thursday night a million-plus tuned in and interacted with Borat live, taking part in a worldwide dance party. This is another big win for Amazon’s video service, which also recently captured fans’ attention with The Boys season 2.
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Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios said, “Sacha has masterfully created one of the most well received films of these unprecedented times – showcasing some of the best and the worst of us, wrapped in one outrageous moment after another. But at its core, Borat 2 is a heartwarming story of a father daughter relationship and of female empowerment seen through a hysterical, satirical lens. With the tremendous launch of this global, tentpole movie, it’s clear our customers around the world want content that is both relevant and entertaining.”
It didn’t hurt that the Borat sequel was immensely popular on social media as well, and had plenty of celebrity support, which included Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, Drake, Taika Waititi, Seth Rogen, Josh Gad, and Am Schumer just to name a few. Amazon also did its part to support the release by kicking off some global stunts that included Borat balloons in London, New York, and Toronto.
Then Bondi Beach in Sydney was transformed into a Borat Beach, and even had lookalikes dressed in maskinis. That followed a branded content live stream on Twitch, which ended up gaining more than 1 million viewers, and is this year’s highest live viewership of any branded stream on Twitch.
Amazon’s aforementioned global dance party was a hit as well, and it crashed the virtual party site it was hosted on. It would seem the world has Borat fever, and who knows, maybe Amazon and Borat will eventually be up for a third go-round.
