Despite a five-year gap between movies, Descendants remains a big draw for Disney. The newest film, Descendants: The Rise of Red, debuted on the Disney+ streaming service over the weekend, and quickly became one of the most-viewed original films in its history.
According to Deadline, The Rise of Red had 6.7 million views in its first three days of availability, making it “Disney Branded Television’s most-viewed DCOM premiere ever on the streamer, according to Disney.”
They note that while “this is a fairly big number for any Disney+ release” it can be hard to compare it to other films, because Disney does not report the viewership data for all of its releases. (“Earlier this year,” they add, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour film debuted to 4.6M views in three days.” Of course, that film had already experienced a massive $265 million box-office run before it debuted on Disney+.)
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Launched on the Disney Channel in 2015, the Descendants franchise, which follows the adventures of the children of famous Disney villains, quickly became one of the company’s biggest live-action TV properties. Disney produced two sequels, in 2017 and 2019, followed by a long break before this latest film, The Rise of Red. (There was an animated special Descendants: The Royal Wedding, released in 2021.)
The Rise of Red stars Kylie Cantrall and Malia Baker as Red (the Queen of Hearts’ daughter) and Chloe (the daughter of Cinderella and Prince Charming — played by Brandy and Paolo Montalban from the popular Disney TV film of Cinderella from the 1990s). While most of the original Descendants cast did not return for the sequel, a few stars do reappear, including Melanie Paxson as the Fairy Godmother. And either way, audiences clearly showed up anyway. So at this point the Descendants name may be a bigger draw than any of the specific actors and characters.
If you still have Disney Channel, and not Disney+, Descendants: The Rise of Red will premiere there on August 9.
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