EXCLUSIVE: Vampires, Daywalkers, Zombies, Werewolves, Aliens — oh my!
Disney’s Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires is keeping kids and families entertained this summer, raking in 9.3M views globally in its first 10 days on Disney+, Deadline can reveal exclusively.
That adds to an already impressive viewing total for the franchise. Per Disney, the Zombies movies have generated over a quarter of a billion streaming hours to-date, making it one of the most popular Disney Channel Original Movie franchises on Disney+.
“With an electrifying story, a chart-topping soundtrack, and major buzz across streaming and social, Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires is hitting big with kids everywhere,” Ayo Davis, president, Disney Branded Television, said in a statement. “Music has always been central to our Disney Channel Original Movies, and ZOMBIES 4 continues that tradition – joining last year’s ‘Descendants: The Rise of Red’ as one of summer’s must-watch events for kids. That excitement is spilling into the real world too, with the ‘Descendants/Zombies: Worlds Collide’ tour playing to packed houses as it travels across the U.S. this summer.”
It’s difficult to compare the fourth film’s debut performance directly to other titles, as the Mouse House is still pretty selective about the data it chooses to share. When numbers are made available, the measurement interval can often change, too. But, for some context from another kids and family title, the premiere of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place scored 3.2M views in 12 days.
However, there’s no doubt there’s a strong appetite for more from the Zombies franchise. The newest franchise leads Freya Skye and Malachi Barton are currently on tour with Disney’s Descendants/ZOMBIES: Worlds Collide Tour, which lands in Los Angeles Wednesday night on its 43-arena North American tour.
The Zombies music has been such a hit that there are several songs that seem to have transcended the films altogether. For example, the fan-favorite single “Someday” from the first Zombies film just crossed the 100M stream milestone on Spotify alone, likely with a boost thanks to a heartfelt reprise in the latest installment.
The Dawn of the Vampires soundtrack debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 Soundtracks chart with standout tracks “Dream Come True,” “The Place to Be” and “Don’t Mess With Us.”
Within 10 days of release, global audio streams had reached 30M including 20M from Spotify, 9M from Apple Music and 11M from Amazon Music — that’s over 15M hours of music streamed, by the way. On YouTube, fans have consumed more than 900,000 hours of soundtrack-related videos.
Fans are also already wondering if there’s another Zombies movie on the day, as “Is there going to be a ZOMBIES 5?” was a top Google search on premiere day.
No word on that yet, but it seems audiences are being kept busy with the fourth film, which is generating a ton of chatter on social media as well with over 35M social impressions and 4.4M engagements on owned social accounts in the last month and much more in user-generated content.
Zombies 4 reunites zombie-cheerleader power couple Zed and Addison, played by Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly, and introduces Skye and Barton as the latest supernatural arrivals: Nova, a fierce Daywalker, and Victor, a proud Vampire.
