According to one measure of this week's streams, Bloodshot outperformed Birds of Prey for a big box office-type victory. As streaming becomes the dominant way of viewing movies and television shows during the coronavirus pandemic, studios are pushing their new releases to video-on-demand services in an attempt to still draw revenue while movie theaters are shut down across the world. There are no box office numbers to talk about right now, but studios will definitely take high video-on-demand buys as a victory.

FandangoNOW is one of the leading video-on-demand services in the industry, boasting over 100,000 titles on the service. They have also become a go-to destination during the COVID-19 crisis, with titles such as The Invisible Man, The Hunt and Emma - all of which would normally still be in theaters at this point in their respective release cycles - already available to be rented on the service. As a central service for many new on-demand movies, FandangoNOW's metrics are already proving to be a valuable tool to measure commercial success.

Related: Universal Tried Early VOD Releases Before (And Failed)

According to a release from FandangoNOW, Bloodshot garnered the third most streams in terms of sales and rentals last week (March 23-29), while Birds of Prey slotted in at fourth. Both Bloodshot and Birds of Prey arrived to the VOD service on March 24, meaning they managed to rank toward the top of the rankings despite not having a full week of streams to accumulate. It'll be interesting to monitor their success in the coming weeks, as the required change in viewing habits may lead to different ebbs and flows than the box office normally dictates.

Birds of Prey Harley Quinn Soundtrack Trailer Wink

Comparing the transactional VOD numbers to the box office numbers is a valid exercise because, just like at the box office, the newer releases are finding their way to the top of the rankings. The number one movie last week was The Invisible Man, which spent under a month in theaters before moving directly to VOD. The second movie on the list was Onward, whose standing may be harmed when it makes its Disney+ debut later in the week. Following Bloodshot and Birds of Prey, the top five was rounded out by Jumanji: The Next Level.

With a messy box office debut and confusing title changes in theaters, the rollout of Birds of Prey has been problematic from the start. Additionally, there's room for more new audiences for Bloodshot than Birds of Prey, which has been out for much longer. Still, as arguably the biggest release of 2020 so far (and perhaps for the long-term future), Birds of Prey needs to find a way to outperform Bloodshot in the year's first big VOD battle.

Next: Every Movie Releasing On-Demand & To Streaming Early Due To Coronavirus

Source: FandangoNOW

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