We’re not blowing smoke: Two movies about the Catholic Church have had surging viewership online following the death of Pope Francis April 21 due to complications from a stroke.
The very premise of “Conclave” is now happening once more for the Church. After Francis’s death, the selection process for the next pope is about to begin; the pontiff nominations were fictionalized in Edward Berger’s Oscar-nominated 2024 film starring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci.
In turn, viewership of “Conclave” increased by 283 percent on Monday, according to Luminate from Variety. “Conclave” is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video and can be purchased on various PVOD platforms. “Conclave” had 1.8 million minutes viewed on April 20, and as of April 22, it went to 6.9 million minutes viewed. The runtime for the feature is 120 minutes.
And “Conclave” was not the only Pope-centric viewing being binged: Netflix’s 2019 drama “The Two Popes” had a 417 percent viewership increase from April 20, generating 290,000 minutes watched. On April 21, it jumped to 1.5 million minutes watched. Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce led the feature, which depicts Pope Benedict’s 2013 retirement and the relationship between Benedict and Francis.
Hollywood has also mourned the passing of progressive Pope Francis, and even expressed concern for him before his death. “Conclave” star Isabella Rossellini said to Variety during the SAG Awards, when Pope Francis was hospitalized at the time, that Romans “have a much closer relationship” with the papal figure.
Martin Scorsese said in a statement to IndieWire this week that the Pope was a “remarkable human being.” Scorsese had famously met with Pope Francis following the Global Aesthetics of the Catholic Imagination in May 2023, leading him to write the script for “A Life of Jesus.”
“There is so much that can be said about the significance of Pope Francis and everything he meant to the world, to the church, to the papacy. I will leave that to others,” Scorsese said. “He was, in every way, a remarkable human being. He acknowledged his own failings. He radiated wisdom. He radiated goodness. He had an ironclad commitment to the good. He knew in his soul that ignorance was a terrible plague on humanity. So he never stopped learning. And he never stopped enlightening. And, he embraced, preached and practiced forgiveness. Universal and constant forgiveness.”
“The Last Temptation of Christ” auteur continued, “The loss for me runs deep — I was lucky enough to know him, and I will miss his presence and his warmth. The loss for the world is immense. But he left a light behind, and it can never be extinguished.”
Scorsese’s frequent collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio shared on Instagram that Pope Francis was a “transformational leader” and “one of the most extraordinary spiritual leaders of our time.” DiCaprio added, “His legacy will continue to inspire generations of environmentalists around the world. May he rest in peace.”
