Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat© Jason Merritt/FilmMagic

Why ‘Borat 2’ outperformed the movie release of ‘Mulan’

Around 1.6 million households in the United States streamed the highly-anticipated sequel on Amazon Prime Video in just the first weekend.


Daniel Neira - Los Angeles
Senior WriterLos Angeles
OCTOBER 29, 2020 6:59 PM EDT

Sacha Baron Cohen’s satirical film Borat 2 has made a great impact on Amazon Prime Video, now that it registered “tens of millions” of viewers just over the movie’s opening weekend.

Amazon is famous for not sharing statistics, not only on their streaming platform but as a company, to the point that they don’t even reveal the total number of subscribers that are using Prime.

However the movie made such a positive impact in numbers that it was revealed that within the first few hours of the release, “more than one million fans tuned in to interact in a live Q&A” with Borat, participating in the worldwide watch party.

Around 1.6 million households in the United States streamed the highly-anticipated sequel on Amazon Prime Video through October 22 to October 24, succeeding the premiere of Mulan  on Disney Plus, which registered 1.1 million household streams during Labor Day weekend.

The comparison between the two movies takes into account the fact that the audiences for both films are quite different, but most importantly, Borat is included in the streaming service, while Disney charged $30 plus the monthly payment, for early access to Mulan.

Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios stated how Sacha has “masterfully created one of the most well-received films of these unprecedented times,” adding that “it’s clear our customers around the world want content that is both relevant and entertaining.”

The speculations for this sequel only started in 2019 when Baron Cohen was spotted in the iconic disguise, however it was unclear because after the first release of Borat in 2006 the actor said he had retired the character.

It wasn’t until Amazon Studios acquired the distribution rights that the project was officially announced in September 2020.