A movie about a U.S. Senator was one of the most watched films on streaming platform Netflix Inc NFLX over the past week. The renewed interest is related to the 2024 presidential election.
What Happened: Former President Donald Trump selected Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate in the 2024 election.
Prior to being a member of the Senate, Vance was a venture capitalist and gained national fame as the author of the bestselling memoir "Hillbilly Elegy."
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The 2016 memoir was turned into a movie that Netflix had the distribution rights to and now streams on their platform.
Vance's book, as well as the film adaptation, tells the story of his upbringing in rural Kentucky and later in blue-collar Ohio.
"From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America's white working class," a description of the book reads.
Since Vance was announced as Trump's vice-presidential pick, the movie saw strong interest from Netflix subscribers.
The streaming platform announced its top 10 most-viewed titles Tuesday and "Hillbilly Elegy" ranked eighth for the week of July 15 through July 21 among English-language films.
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Ranking in the top 10 for the first time since Netflix began publishing its weekly list, the film had 9.4 million hours viewed and 4.8 million views.
The movie adaptation of the book starred Glenn Close, Amy Adams and Gabriel Basso, who portrayed Vance. Close was nominated for an Academy Award for Supporting Actress. The film also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Makeup & Hairstyling.
Netflix could benefit from having the rights to the film, as searches on Google have soared for "Hillbilly Elegy."
Google Trends shows that the top states searching for the movie/book were Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama and South Carolina.
The top breakout search terms based on "Hillbilly Elegy," listed below, also play well in Netflix's favor.
- JD Vance movie
- JD Vance wife
- Where to watch Hillbilly Elegy
- What is Hillbilly Elegy about
- Is Hillbilly Elegy true
Why It's Important: Netflix isn't the only one gaining from the surge in interest for the book. The book, which is called "A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis," is also performing well for e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc AMZN.
The paperback version of the book is currently ranked number one in the Books category with the hardcover version of the book ranking number three in the category.
While it's common for older books to surge in interest and sales volume on a platform like Amazon when a movie or TV series is released on the content, this comes four years after the movie was released.
With the 2024 election four months away and the potential that Vance is on the winning side of the race, the book and movie could continue to see strong interest.
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