Why ‘Agatha All Along,’ Disney’s Second Least-Watched MCU Show, Is Still A Hit

Marvel and Star Wars fans are either celebrating or wringing their hands about a new batch of Disney Plus viewership data showing the biggest and least-watched shows of 2024, according to Luminate estimates.

One of the most frustrating stories for fans is that The Acolyte was cancelled after season 1 despite being the second best-performing show of the year. But there’s a really odd situation when it comes to Marvel shows on the other side.

Luminate says that with their viewership minutes, Agatha All Along and Echo, the #3 and #4 most-watched series of the year, were in fact still the two least-viewed MCU series to date.

That’s bad except in the context of Agatha specifically, it’s still…good? The main problem with these shows is that even with higher viewership, if your show does not outperform the expectations compared to its usually massive budget, it doesn’t matter. That’s certainly what we saw from The Acolyte, which was never going to justify its $180-230 million cost. Or Secret Invasion, which somehow cost a baffling $212 million.

But enter Agatha. Yes, it’s the second least-watched MCU series, but it also was dirt cheap compared to well, every other Marvel project, similar to its neighbor here, Echo. Agatha was in fact the least-expensive Marvel project ever, only costing ~$40 million for nine episodes, a lot more than other series often get. This was…black magic, shall we say.

As such, Agatha has been treated like an (increasingly rare) series hit by Disney and Marvel. They are reportedly very happy with how Agatha performed, both making the most of that tiny budget, but also in terms of how it was received by fans where the series spawned a die-hard fanbase almost immediately. As such, future plans may now expand to either give Agatha a season 2, have her co-lead a Wiccan spin-off, or even throw her back into conflict with Scarlet Witch someday, who will soon be resurrected for MCU movies.

The lesson here is obvious, make better shows (and movies) on a smaller budget. Especially these Disney Plus shows which do not have direct box office correlation and are measured in, what, how many subs they’re supposed to bring to Disney Plus? Regardless, it’s abundantly clear that with this viewership for all Disney content, it should not be spending $200 million on shows every few months. Agatha proves that, and has been praised accordingly.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.