This year's viewership data has shown that Amazon Prime’s Borat 2 is the second most-watched on-demand movie of 2020, coming behind Hamilton on Disney+. Borat 2, the sequel to the 2006 mockumentary film, was released on streaming just last month and had a more successful opening weekend than the Mulan remake from Disney.

Like Borat 2, the filmed version of Lin Manuel-Miranda’s Hamilton musical also found massive success in streaming. The creation of a Hamilton film was unprecedented on Broadway, making the movie a unique experience. Hamilton also brought in many new customers to the Disney+ streaming service, which has only been on the market for about a year.

Related: Hamilton Review: Disney+'s Filmed Stage Production Lives Up To ALL The Hype

Earlier today, Variety published the findings of a study by ScreenEngine/ASI that asked over 1,000 people in the United States what on-demand movies they’ve seen this year. The most-viewed out of these programs was the filmed version of the musical hit Hamilton, which premiered on Disney+ on the Fourth of July. Right behind Hamilton was Borat 2, followed by another film on Amazon Prime, My Spy. Of the Top 10 on-demand movies of this year, most come from Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney+, with just one appearance from HBO Max for the film Roald Dahl’s The Witches.

Borat 2 still

Hamilton and Borat 2 could not be more different films stylistically, but the one thing they have in common is that they were both well-known properties before their appearance on streaming. Borat had been a cult classic since its release 14 years ago, and Hamilton had become one of the most famous musicals of all time before Disney+ picked it up. These two films topping the charts right now points to the level of familiarity audiences have with these stories and characters.

This list of popular on-demand movies is interesting for an average viewer, but this is vital information for the companies that own streaming platforms. The streaming market is growing larger every day, and every platform is on the lookout for the key to success. This ScreenEngine/ASI study would suggest it is more beneficial to stick to brands that viewers are already familiar with, like Hamilton and Borat. Other streamers like Netflix have been doing this as well. The company’s top two films on this list, Extraction and The Old Guard, were based on previously existing graphic novels.

Previously existing work can be a good indicator of success for a new show or movie, but this isn’t the be-all-end-all for filmmaking. Both Hamilton and Borat 2 show just how successful streaming can be, but that success level needs to be accessible to all types of movies, not just sequels, and adaptations.

More: Borat 2: How Much Of The Movie Really Happened (& What's Staged)

Source: Variety