Sony Pictures Animation and Netflix‘s new animated musical Vivo is proving to be a major success. Debuting on the streaming platform on Aug. 6, the film features Lin-Manuel Miranda, hot on the heels of his In the Heights and Hamilton success, in the starring role as Vivo, with Miranda also having penned the movie’s many songs. The heartwarming Kirk DeMicco-directed film, which follows a music-loving kinkajou as he embarks on the journey of a lifetime to fulfill his destiny and deliver a love song for an old friend, is dominating more than just the U.S. charts, as it’s also taking the world by storm.
Now two weeks out from its Netflix premiere, Vivo still maintains a spot on the streaming charts. As of the latest Thursday, Aug. 19 streaming data compiled by FlixPatrol, Vivo stole the top spot in numerous categories worldwide. The film ranked No. 3 globally on the overall chart, falling just behind series All American at No. 2 and Outer Banks at No. 1. However, Vivo claimed the No. 1 spot on the global Top 10 Kids and Top 10 Movies charts, being followed by Beckett and The Kissing Booth 3 on the latter chart. In the United States along, Vivo has continued its high rankings. On Friday, Aug. 20, the film claimed the No. 3 spot on the streamer’s overall chart and the No. 1 spot on the U.S. Top 10 Movies chart. It has held that No. 1 spot among movies since its debut.
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The path to bringing Vivo to the screen and the subsequent success wasn’t an easy one, as it was one that took many years. Miranda first began working on songs for the film all the way back in 2009, and while Vivo was first pitched to DreamWorks Animation in 2010, the project was ultimately canceled due to the restructuring at the company in 2015. However, in December 2015, the film got its second chance at life Sony Pictures Animation not only revived it, but fast-tracked it. DeMicco came into the mix just months later. He told CBR that he was brought onto the project in 2016 after he didn’t have a project. After he heard of the project, he began talking to Kristine Belson, the President of Sony Animation, and Miranda “in that way like, ‘How can I help?’ And it just became that.” DeMicco said he found the premise of the film “very compelling.”
“I was so taken by the original songs he had written, especially, ‘One of a Kind.’ That’s the one that’s still in there that is the heart of the story, the Andres and Vivo story… That duo that had played the same act ten times a day for 20 years and lived together. They were like a married couple or a father-son, whatever metaphor you want to put into it, but the idea was what if you lost that person one day? Where would you go and what would you do?” he said. “That idea was very compelling to me… Everything else, from that point forward, I wanted to be part of this.”
Aside from its high rankings on Netflix’s streaming charts, Vivo has amassed success on Rotten Tomatoes, where it has an 85% fresh rating among critics and a 75% audience score. At this time, Netflix has not released any viewership data for the film, so it is unclear how many households have viewed it. Vivo is available for streaming on Netflix.
