Spike Lee’s crime drama staring Denzel Washington pulled in a big audience last week. Highest 2 Lowest earned a spot as the most popular film on streaming, according to a company that tracks ratings. It’s a win for Apple TV+.
Plus, Apple TV+’s adaptation of Foundation stayed popular even as its third season wrapped up.
Highest 2 Lowest hits the heights
Movies haven’t been Apple’s forte. Since the debut of Apple TV+ in 2019, it mostly made films that audiences stayed away from in large numbers. But it’s starting to figure out the big screen — F1 was a huge hit this summer. And now Highest 2 Lowest started out well.
The film — directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington — is a modern crime-thriller set in New York City that reimagines Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 classic High and Low (“Heaven and Hell” in Japanese). Washington plays music mogul David King, whose world is thrown into chaos when kidnappers mistakenly seize the son of his chauffeur instead of his own, forcing King into a moral and financial quandary as he must decide what matters most: family, legacy or power.
Movie and TV search engine Reelgood publishes a weekly ratings list of the 10 most popular films in the U.S. on streaming services, and Foundation sits at No. 1 for the week of September 4 through September 10. Rival service JustWatch put the series in the No. 5 slot of popular streaming films the week of September 1 through September 7.
Ratings estimates from companies like JustWatch and Reelgood are necessary because streaming services rarely reveal how many people tune in to their offerings.
Highest 2 Lowest is ready to stream now on Apple TV+.
Complex and thrilling Foundation still earns high ratings
Foundation season 3 is a huge hit for Apple TV+ with the series staying popular through its full run. JustWatch also tracks streaming series, and the Apple TV+ sci-fi epic got the No. 8 spot on its chart of most popular ones last week. Reelgood says it was the No. 10 most popular series.
The ongoing show tells the story of a band of exiles struggling to save humanity during and after the fall of a Galactic Empire. The Apple TV+ series adapts Isaac Asimov’s groundbreaking novels from the 1940s and 1950s. Bringing seminal novels to the screen is always challenging, but Apple is nailing it.
The entire Foundation season 3 is ready to stream now, as the season finale premiered on Friday. And that’s not the end: Apple TV+ approved season 4!
Watch these and more on Apple TV+
Streaming hits like Highest 2 Lowest and Foundation, plus many others, come with a subscription to Apple TV+. The service is $12.99 per month with a seven-day free trial. You can also get it at a discount via any tier of the Apple One subscription bundle.
And Apple’s streaming video service also includes a library of drama, comedies, musicals, children’s shows, nature documentaries, etc.
