nice!

do you know how this season's opening weekend compares to Seasons 1 and 2? I loved it and am hoping the ratings are going up but am curious how the Executives feel about it

also - how does Stranger Things opening week numbers compare to all other shows opening week numbers? (the above graph was great to see it was a hit this week, but it was comparing shows that have been our for months so it was expected to be higher opening week)

appreciate any things you can find.. I did a quick google search and didn't see anything, but I didn't see your graph either..

I doubt the actual Nielsen ratings will be made available anytime soon, if ever.

The numbers above are Parrot Analytic "metrics", not actual views. I'm not sure how they calculate these, to be honest, but apparently it takes social media into account.

its still interesting data, no doubt - thanks for find it and posting it

The good news is that Season 3 has had positive feedback and it's clearly bigger budget than Seasons 1 and 2, so we can expect full steam ahead for Season 4 with the biggest budget and hopefully they start it soon before those kids get too big...

I guess if Season 3 was bombing, then the future would be in jeopardy

so season 2, ele closes the hole, and mind fury lives, but season 3, they close it back, and the mind fury dies?

Well here's the stats.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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I doubt the actual Nielsen ratings will be made available anytime soon, if ever.

The numbers above are Parrot Analytic "metrics", not actual views. I'm not sure how they calculate these, to be honest, but apparently it takes social media into account.

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I just did the Nielsen survey and they didn't ask about streaming videos on it. My entire week watch journal was empty. I did list the streaming service I use at the end in the comments section though.

Just wrapped up Season 3 and thought it was awesome. Far better than season 2 and neck and neck with Season 1. (More ridiculous, more fun.)

Really curious to see where they go with season 4 now that half the crew moved to a new city and Hopper is (maybe) locked in cell in Kamchatka where the Russians have a pet Demigorgon.

Crazy thing about the viewership thus far, it even broke the movie record set by Murder Mystery a few weeks ago, by over 10M views.

https://www.engadget.com/2019/07/08/stranger-things-3-viewership-sets-record/

Plus, you gotta think that a lot of those 40M accounts are shared accounts, right? The real number could be even higher than 40M people. That's crazy.

The equivalent of that would be roughly a $400M opening at the box office. (Granted, it's not a fair comparison since people aren't paying $10 to watch Stranger Things, but it's still nuts.)

Boo Weekley said:

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I guess my only point was that they looked like a lot of nerds prob did back in the mid 80's. Dorky mop tops and short shorts, several years out of style etc. I am wondering if maybe that was intentional? The more popular people def had a more modernized cutting edge look. Nancy Wheeler and the popular girls in the mall whose coke exploded. I definitely agree that if the next season is set in 87 or something and the kids are still rocking the same gear and hair do's it will be a bit much.

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Yeah, could be. I turned 19 in 1985, so I wasn't hanging with 12-13-year old nerds.

Maybe they did wear it more like that.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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We had to get a second VHS copy of ET growing up because I wore out the first tape.

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I had the original Star Wars trilogy (where Han shot first, if I remember right). By the end, it looked terrible. I refuse to get the new additions.

aTmAg said:

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A bit off topic... but there is something I need to explain to the youngins on this board (I had to explain this to my kids)....


TV in the 80's really wasn't that blurry (like when Hopper was watching Magnum PI). Assuming one had a decent antenna, the picture was crystal clear back when it originally aired. What makes old football games and reruns so blurry now is that many of them were stored in closets for years on magnetic tape. That degrades over time and is when/where they got blurry. On the other hand, properly stored film does not get blurry. That is why the original Star Wars trilogy is still clear not to mention something like Lawrence of Arabia that is almost 60 years old.


Sorry for the distraction... carry on....

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The big issue isn't so much the degradation, but the fact that all but the bigger budget shows were shot on magnetic tape to begin with, and not on film. Shows shot on magnetic tape are locked into that original resolution, which is why shows like Curb your Enthusiasm and Fresh Prince will always look like crap when reaired. If you watched them on a 27-inch TV they'd probably look okay. Considering my smallest TV is 50 inches, that poor resolution gets exposed in a hurry. You could take the tape the day it was stored and play it on a modern set and you'd still have a blurry picture.

Meanwhile, Seinfeld looks fantastic because it was shot on film, and they can rescan the original 35mm film, (which doesn't have a resolution, but can easily yield a 1080p to 4k level picture).

A home recording can look even worse, because of the mentioned degradation, as well as the fact that many VCR recordings are well below analog TV broadcast quality if they were recorded at extended play speeds.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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We had to get a second VHS copy of ET growing up because I wore out the first tape.

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That sucks. In the 90's we had movies like Basic Instinct to wear out.

For season 4 the only way I see it not being super cheesy and the government pulling them or something stupid is this:

Murray setups a new spot, listening to the Russians. Finds out there have another portal or are opening one and hears 'The American'.
Talks to Joyce who gets the gang back that Christmas, talks to Eleven who regains her power to see Hopper in the prison.
That's episode 1. They call up the US gov and get some 'assistance' to hunt the commies and Eleven says she wont go without the gang.

aggietony2010 said:

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aTmAg said:

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A bit off topic... but there is something I need to explain to the youngins on this board (I had to explain this to my kids)....


TV in the 80's really wasn't that blurry (like when Hopper was watching Magnum PI). Assuming one had a decent antenna, the picture was crystal clear back when it originally aired. What makes old football games and reruns so blurry now is that many of them were stored in closets for years on magnetic tape. That degrades over time and is when/where they got blurry. On the other hand, properly stored film does not get blurry. That is why the original Star Wars trilogy is still clear not to mention something like Lawrence of Arabia that is almost 60 years old.


Sorry for the distraction... carry on....

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The big issue isn't so much the degradation, but the fact that all but the bigger budget shows were shot on magnetic tape to begin with, and not on film. Shows shot on magnetic tape are locked into that original resolution, which is why shows like Curb your Enthusiasm and Fresh Prince will always look like crap when reaired. If you watched them on a 27-inch TV they'd probably look okay. Considering my smallest TV is 50 inches, that poor resolution gets exposed in a hurry. You could take the tape the day it was stored and play it on a modern set and you'd still have a blurry picture.

Meanwhile, Seinfeld looks fantastic because it was shot on film, and they can rescan the original 35mm film, (which doesn't have a resolution, but can easily yield a 1080p to 4k level picture).

A home recording can look even worse, because of the mentioned degradation, as well as the fact that many VCR recordings are well below analog TV broadcast quality if they were recorded at extended play speeds.

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I agree that other factors may be to blame in addition to magnetic degradation, but I disagree that it's a mere screen size problem. You can watch these same videos in 27-inch today and they will look like total crap. They did not look that way originally.

For example, I watched the Berlin wall come down live and it was damn clear back then (I was trying to see if I could find a friend who was there), now it looks blurry and ghosty. The same for the 1988 Cotton Bowl, All in the Family, etc. (even if you watch them all in 27 inches).

Perhaps it's degradation, perhaps they transferred it to digital in a lower resolution, etc... whatever the cause, my point is that, whenever you see a show like Stranger Things, the Americans, a documentary, etc. show an old 70s or 80s clip, they typically look terrible. Those events did NOT look that bad on our TV's when we watched them live. They were pretty freaking clear.

aggietony2010 said:

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Considering my smallest TV is 50 inches,

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It's all about inches for some guys.

You caught me. It's actually 45 inches