Eddie Murphy’s Coming 2 America Had Biggest Streaming Opening Weekend Of Past Year According To Report

Eddie Murphy’s Coming 2 America has apparently scored the biggest opening weekend for a streaming film in the past year. This report comes from Screen Engine/ASI (via THR), which measured the viewership returns for Coming 2 America, with the caveat of not being able to release the official viewership numbers and demographic info. The long-awaited sequel dropped on Thursday, March 4th (instead of Friday), and ended up beating some high-profile competition in the form of Disney’s Raya (offered on Disney+’s premium viewing service for $30), and The Spongebob Movie: Sponge On The Run, which was offered as part of Paramount+’s launch.

The declaration that Coming 2 America is the biggest streaming movie debut in a year means that Eddie Murphy and co. have bested more than just their opening weekend competition: apparently Coming 2 America had a bigger debut than HBO Max’s Christmas release of Wonder Woman 1984, as well as Borat: Subsequent Movie Film, which was Amazon’s other big new movie release in recent months, besides Coming 2 America.

So far, Coming 2 America has split critics down the middle, with a 51% on Rotten Tomatoes (at the time of writing this). Some of the criticisms include the following:

“Coming 2 America” easily could have been a really neat father-daughter tale – and one celebrating young Black women – yet filmmakers instead chose the rehashed route already traveled. (At least all the Zamundans look great, thanks to Oscar-winning “Black Panther” costume designer Ruth E. Carter.)” —USA Today

“…while fans may appreciate that director Craig Brewer (“Dolemite Is My Name”) hasn’t messed with the formula, the movie feels downright lazy on the heels of, say, the take-no-prisoners satire of “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” which Amazon released last year.” —Variety

“Coming 2 America is technically a sequel, not a remake, but in the spirit of both the remakes and sequels we’ve been bombarded with of late, it may be wisest to consider it an update: a gentle massaging of the Eighties humor, which nowadays may feel a little out of date, maybe even cringe.” —Rolling Stone

Fans, on the other hand, are loving everything the critics are pointing to as detriments:

“Holy sh*t! #Coming2America is pretty damn funny by laying tribute to the past and using the jokes that worked! Thank God!” —@jortega8

“Coming 2 America is the definition of “if it isn’t broke, why fix it”. If anything, the cameos will make you laugh. It’s a modern take of the original.” —@NarkyTheMaskot

“Coming 2 America did a perfect reboot , they brought so many characters back, Loved it” —@NolaHatPlug

Coming 2 America is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. You can sign up for Prime right here.

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