How Pope Francis’ Demise Boosted Conclave and Two Popes’ Viewership; REPORT

Pope Francis passed away at the age of 88 on Monday, April 21. Amid the tragedy, people have turned to watch papal movies like Focus Features’ Oscar-winning film Conclave and Netflix’s three-time Oscar-nominated The Two Popes.

Conclave starring Ralph Fiennes revolves around the aftermath of the death of the sitting Pope. Fiennes’s character is assigned to handle the in-house elections known as the Conclave and must deal with the inner politics, social, and spiritual differences. 

The plot is strikingly similar to the present situation, drawing the audience on streaming platforms in large numbers. Luminate data reports that the US viewership for the film has increased by 283% in the last few days with an average of 6.9M minutes watched on each day. 

The Edward Berger-directed film won an Oscar for Peter Straughan’s Adapted Screenplay. It also created a huge buzz upon its release, earning more than $115M at the box office on a $20M production cost. 

The Two Popes follows Pope Benedict XVI ceding the head of the church to Pope Francis, saw its U.S. viewership soar by 417% over the two days after Francis’s death. On April 20, the viewership reached 290,000 minutes watched and the following day, it reached 1.5M minutes. 

The 2019 movie starred Jonathan Pryce as Pope Francis and Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict. The former earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor that year for his performance, while the latter earned a nod for Best Supporting Actor. Anthony McCarten was nominated in the Academy’s Best Adapted Screenplay category. 

“Behind Vatican walls, the conservative Pope Benedict XVI and the liberal future Pope Francis must find common ground to forge a new path for the Catholic Church,” says the film’s official synopsis. 

Conclave is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, and The Two Popes is available to watch on Netflix.

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