‘Conclave’ streaming numbers soar following Pope Francis’ death
The number of people viewing Conclave has soared since the Vatican announced Pope Francis’ death on April 21st.
Luminate, which tracks viewership of streaming content, has recorded that the number of people watching the film spiked 283 per cent on April 21st, Variety reported.
The stats are helpfully taken in minutes. On April 20th, the film was watched for 1.8 million minutes. After the news of the Pope’s death, the film was watched for 6.9 million minutes.
The film follows the protagonist Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, played by Ralph Fiennes, the dean of the College of Cardinals, who the late pope instructed to facilitate the voting. After no one earns a two-thirds majority in the first round of voting, the conclave is forced to meet multiple times in the coming days to reach a consensus and issue white smoke from the chimney to signal the selection of the new pope.
Though viewers cannot hope to see a complete representation of a conclave, there are key similarities in the film. A Far Out feature expanded on the movie’s accuracy, revealing that “the film is remarkably accurate from a procedural standpoint”.
Conclave won the Academy Award for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay‘. Far Out also named Conclave as the best movie of 2024, writing, “The film is gripping from minute one, carrying the audience along with intrigue, great acting, and Volker Bertelmann’s pulsing, stirring score. Ralph Fiennes is customarily superb as the constantly conflicted Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, and he is supported by a murderer’s row of character actors doing some of their best work.”
This year’s conclave is predicted to be the most thoroughly followed worldwide, if only because millions more now know what a conclave is, which is a testament to the power of film.
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