Borat 2 has proven to be a pretty massive success for the VOD market in 2020. According to a new study, the sequel had the second-highest VOD premiere in North America for the year. While 2020 has certainly been pretty weird as far as new movies are concerned, there have been some bright spots, thanks to studios who were willing to release their projects digitally instead of holding out for a theatrical release.

According to a new statistic from ScreenEngine/ASI, Amazon's Borat 2 was only behind the Disney+ release of Hamilton in terms of biggest VOD premieres of 2020. Hamilton is still massive and it was a big deal for Disney to release it when they did. Borat 2 was able to beat out Sam Hargrave's Extraction, Gina Prince-Bythewood's The Old Guard and Niki Caro's Mulan, which was released on Disney+ if subscribers agreed to pay an extra $29.99. My Spy and Phineas & Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe were also some of the bigger premieres of the year this far.

As for keeping the second spot for the year, Borat 2 has a pretty good chance. However, Pixar and Disney are getting ready to drop the highly anticipated Soul Christmas Day on Disney+. The animated family movie could end up breaking the records for the year due to its popularity and the fact that it will be released on a holiday. Regardless, Borat 2 has been able to capture a lot more than just viewers since its release two weeks ago.

Borat 2 became a massive talking point in the week leading up to its release, mostly thanks to a scene featuring Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Both Trump and Giuliani provided Sacha Baron Cohen and Amazon with plenty of free advertising, which helped the sequel out quite a bit, especially for people who didn't even know that the movie was coming out. Cohen previously stated that he had to retire Borat on the big screen because he had become too famous, which is something that is addressed in the Amazon Prime original movie.

2006's Borat was an unexpected hit at the box office after earning well over $260 million globally. There was no doubt that Borat 2 was going to be a hit, but it would have been interesting to see what it could have done in a time without the public health crisis raging on a big screen. The same can be said for Bill & Ted Face the Music and Christopher Nolan's Tenet, along with the rest of 2020's release slate, which is now looking at 2021 releases. Borat 2 is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. You can check out the 2020 ScreenEngine/ASI numbers over at Variety.

  • 2020 VOD Premiere Numbers
  • 1. Hamilton: The Movie 3 July 2020 Disney+
  • 2. Borat 2: Subsequent Moviefilm 23 October 2020 Prime Video
  • 3. My Spy 26 June 2020 Prime Video
  • 4. Extraction 24 April 2020 Netflix
  • 5. Phineas & Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe 28 August 2020 Disney+
  • 6. Mulan 4 September 2020 Disney+
  • 7. The Old Guard 10 July 2020 Netflix
  • 8. The Trial of the Chicago 7 16 October 2020 Netflix
  • 9. Roald Dahl's The Witches 2020 22 October 2020 HBO Max
  • 10. The Lovebirds 22 May 2020 Netflix