Zendaya And The Spider-Men Swing To Top Of Talent Demand Charts Following ‘No Way Home’ Debut [Parrot Analytics]

Thursday, 23 December 2021, 6:38 am
Press Release: Parrot Analytics

As you know by now, Spider-Man: No Way Home is the biggest blockbuster of the pandemic era, with one of the most successful opening weekends in box office history.

Just as the movie has been a boon to Disney’s bottom line, its success has directly translated into skyrocketing global demand for the film’s leading stars.

During its opening weekend, No Way Home helped push Zendaya to the top of the world’s most in-demand actor rankings, and has brought newfound audiences to the three main actors who have portrayed Peter Parker so far in the 21st Century - Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland.

The data has implications for Hollywood's and Marvel’s talent wars, and suggests in the case of the Spider-Man franchise, preexisting IP could be a bigger factor driving audience attention than the leading actors themselves.

Zendaya’s World

Zendaya, who portrays Peter Parker’s love interest MJ, is far outpacing her leading male costars in global audience demand, and is currently the most in-demand actor in the world.

During No Way Home’s opening weekend, Zendaya was 63.6x more in-demand than the average talent globally, and was 41.5% more in-demand than second place Indian actor Allu Arjun.

Zendaya being popular isn’t news. She has a massive built-in fanbase from her time as a Disney Channel star, her Emmy-winning leading role on HBO’s Euphoria, and her role in another recent pandemic box office success, Dune, to say nothing of the publicity surrounding her relationship with costar Tom Holland.

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What matters now is No Way Home has pushed Zendaya to her highest level of global talent demand on record. On Sunday, December 19, Zendaya was 67.5x more in-demand than the average talent globally. Her average global demand in the 30 days preceding that was 32.9x.

Even Zendaya, with her universal appeal and established fanbase, needed a Marvel movie to reach her highest level of stardom to date.

The Spider-Men

Over the same time period, the three leading Spider-Man actors have jumped into the ranks of top ten actors worldwide, which are generally dominated by the top Bollywood stars.

During the course of No Way Home’s opening weekend, early aughts Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire was the third most in-demand actor worldwide, with 40.7x global demand.

The Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield - who, like Zendaya, has a passionate fanbase outside the Spiderverse, and is also leading Netflix’s high-profile film Tick, Tick… Boom! - was the fifth most in-demand actor worldwide at 39x.

Current Peter Parker, Tom Holland - Zendaya’s on and off screen love interest - was the sixth most popular actor with global audiences, at 32.7x.

Talent Demand Gains

It’s no surprise that appearing in a Marvel movie will raise any actor’s profile, but the rate of demand growth for the four stars has nevertheless been exceptional.

Between December 12th and December 19th:

Global audience demand for Tobey Maguire grew 598%
Global audience demand for Andrew Garfield grew 284%
Global audience demand for Tom Holland grew 128%
Global audience demand for Zendaya grew 124%

These growth rates suggest that demand for Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield is most tied to the success of of the Spider-Man franchise, while Zendaya and Tom Holland had stronger bases of support to begin with.

Stars vs IP

Talent demand data helps address the endless Hollywood debate of which matters more - star actors, or beloved IP.

In the case of Spider-Man: No Way Home, the evidence does point to the IP of Spider-Man as having more sway than the given actors playing him.

Nevertheless, the relationship between stars and IP can and should be a virtuous one. The success of No Way Home has further raised the profile of these actors, who can bring their Spider-Man fandom with them elsewhere, and use this data in negotiations for their new movies and projects.

Tobey Maguire in particular has clearly found a new, younger audience, that may have not known him from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy that debuted nearly two decades ago.

Parrot Analytics

Global television demand measurement

Parrot Analytics is the leading global content demand analytics company for the multi-platform TV business. With the world's largest TV audience demand datasets, the company currently tracks more than 1.5B daily expressions of demand in over 100 languages from 200+ countries to reveal the content consumers engage with and watch the most across platforms.

As a trusted partner to some of the biggest media companies and content creators in the world, Parrot Analytics optimises content workflows in real time. The company's TV analytics products result in better production, distribution, acquisition and marketing decisions, as well as accelerated SVOD platform success.