It maybe wasn’t too hard to predict that the combined power of Star Wars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, decades of classic Disney animation and Pixar movies, and every season of The Simpsons would generate more consumer interest than a riff on The Most Dangerous Game starring Liam Hemsworth, or even a show called Murder House Flip. But here’s at least some data to confirm that outcome. According to Sensor Tower, a service that tracks app downloads, more than 300,000 people in the United States and Canada downloaded mobile-only streaming service Quibi during its debut on Monday—a strong total that still paled in comparison to the first-day downloads for Disney+, which topped 4 million.
Long in the works, Quibi, short for “quick bites,” is Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg and former Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman‘s ambitious attempt to disrupt content consumption and traditional viewing habits. The service is mobile-only, and all its content clocks in at under 10 minutes. That includes what Quibi calls “movies in chapters,“ like the aforementioned Most Dangerous Game with Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz, and Survive, a thriller with former Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner. In addition to the narrative series, Quibi features documentary and news programs, including shows from Chrissy Teigen, Jennifer Lopez, and major news outlets like NBC. All told, Quibi launched with 50 shows, with more to come in the weeks and months ahead. It plans to debut more than 8,500 episodes of content before the year is closed.
“This is a big, big risk, and I’m not sure we’ve really seen the likes of this in quite a while,” Andrew Hare, part of research and consulting firm Magid, told Vanity Fair in a recent interview. “They’re taking a giant swing at the plate.”
Of course, the environment where Quibi was developed is far different from the one in which it now exists. The coronavirus pandemic has forced millions into their homes, which means an increased amount of screentime and a relatively captive audience (as it were). At the same time, the economy has cratered—and with job loss estimates in the millions, consumers are not flush with disposable income. Quibi costs $4.99 per month with ads (and $7.99 per month without), but is currently available for a 90-day free trial to entice subscribers.
Speaking to Recode Media with Peter Kafka in an interview posted this week, Katzenberg said that the Quibi team discussed whether to delay the launch. “Our gamble was to play offense,” he said. “Being able to come to market at a time when the entire world is in a defensive posture, to be able to come with something we’re proud of and delivers on its promise, might turn out to be an advantage. But over and again we wanted to be certain we weren’t taking advantage of people’s disadvantage. That was the turning point for us…to do this with the substantive change of giving it free for three months.”
Thus far, despite falling way behind the Disney+ launch, Quibi has acquitted itself nicely, at least in the Apple App Store. The app currently stands as the fourth most popular download, behind Zoom, TikTok, and Hangouts Meet by Google. A representative for Quibi did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the first-day downloads.
More Great Stories From Vanity Fair
— Cover Story: How Reese Witherspoon Turned Her Literary Obsession Into an Empire
— The Best Movies and Shows on Netflix to Watch While Stuck at Home
— A First Look at Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story
— An Exclusive Excerpt From Natalie Wood, Suzanne Finstad’s Biography—With New Details About Wood’s Mysterious Death
— Tiger King Is Your Next True-Crime TV Obsession
— The Best Shows to Stream If You’re in Quarantine
— From the Archive: A Friendship With Greta Garbo and Its Many Pleasures
Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hollywood newsletter and never miss a story.
