X-Men ’97 looks to be another Marvel bomb on the Disney+ streaming service, according to the ratings, which can only be looked at as a big disappointment.
I first got an inclination the ratings aren’t all that good when, again, Samba TV didn’t post anything.
Samba TV claims to have a better ratings system than Nielsen, so when Samba TV doesn’t report on the numbers, that means they’re likely not good, and lately, they haven’t been reporting on the Disney or Marvel numbers when they used to every time (its company wiki page says Disney is an investor).
Case in point, both Samba TV and Nielsen didn’t report any numbers for Doctor Who on Disney+ but the UK provided numbers which revealed horrible ratings.
Samba TV also didn’t report any specific numbers for Marvel’s Echo, and while Echo made Samba TV’s weekly ratings list (again, no numbers mentioned), and I believe made the Nielsen charts the week it premiered, bear in mind that is for all FIVE episodes released. Of course, following the premiere week, Echo jumped off a cliff and didn’t make any of the ratings charts.
Are the X-Men ’97 numbers good on Disney+?
So let’s take a look at the X-Men ’97 numbers which we get via Variety who says Disney filled them in X-Men ’97 hit 4 million views in five days.
Well, in a similar situation to Echo, that’s for TWO episodes released, as the first two X-Men ’97 episodes were released the same day, on March 20, 2024, so that averages to only 2 million an episode.
Or how about this?
Variety says Disney told them X-Men ’97 is the “most-watched Season 1 premiere for a full-length animated series since Marvel’s What If…? debuted in 2021.”
Well, only ONE episode of What If…? was released for its premiere back then, so that says the TWO episodes of X-Men ’97 didn’t beat out the ONE episode of What If…? Season 1, otherwise Disney would have said it did.
What Disney did say is that X-Men ’97 beat out Iwájú and The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder — but has anyone actually even heard of those two animated shows??? I haven’t and this is the X-Men and Marvel we are talking about here.
That also means any premiers for full series animation on Disney+ prior to What If…? Season 1 did better than X-Men ’97 (probably the Star Wars animated shows, I’m guessing, if that counts).
Variety also points out “animated shorts, such as Star Wars: Visions, I Am Groot and Zootopia+ are excluded from this count” — Why? Did they do better???
Marvel continues to disappoint on Disney+
There was a ton of build up for X-Men ’97 which is a continuation from the massively popular ’90s series.
Maybe a week prior to its debut and the day before it’s LA premiere wasn’t the best time to announce the showrunner had been fired.
It probably also wasn’t a good thing to include a non-binary character when non-binary didn’t even exist and change up Rogue and others.
That said, those Marvel fans that did tune in that watched it did give it a 92% Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score, so maybe it will have legs as word of mouth spreads. Nielsen ratings won’t be available for about a month.
What seems to be happening is that a majority of fans are done with Marvel following Phase 4 and Phase 5 which was such a huge disappointment. They’re also done with the Disney+ streaming service which has nothing good on it, and it’s only the Disney stans who keep subscribing month after month, which is why the ratings are nowhere near where they used to be when Disney+ launched. It proves fans are tired of all the BS from these Hollywood clowns.
