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Avatar: Fire and Ash's reign at the top of the streaming charts is now over. A surprising new contender — Disney's own Descendants: Wicked Wonderland — now wears the crown.
Data from FlixPatrol reveals Descendants: Wicked Wonderland is the #1 movie on Disney+ globally as of July 19, beating out Avatar: Fire and Ash (#2). The new Descendants film has topped the charts in 71 countries around the world, including the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. Wicked Wonderland premiered on July 16 on Disney Channel and made its Disney+ debut the following day, meaning it didn't take very long for the latest installment in the beloved Descendants film series to dethrone Cameron's box-office titan.
Descendants: Wicked Wonderland Overtakes Avatar: Fire and Ash on Disney+
The new Descendants film sees Kylie Cantrall reprising her role as Red (the daughter of Alice in Wonderland's Queen of Hearts) alongside Malia Baker as Chloe Charming, the daughter of Cinderella. A sequel to 2024's Descendants: The Rise of Red, Wicked Wonderland sees the two daughters of Disney royalty setting off on a new adventure in the aftermath of their time travel exploits in the previous installment.
The film's logline teases the dangers that await Red and Chloe after they messed with the past. "Now that the Queen of Hearts is nice and Cinderella is safe, things seem perfect for Red and Chloe...but little do they know that changing the past created a new villain — Maddox Hatter."
The villain is the son of Alice in Wonderland's Mad Hatter, with Leonardo Nam (Westworld, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift) returning to the role. New additions to the cast include Liamani Segura as Pink (Red's younger sister), Brendon Trembaly as Max (Maddox's son), Kiara Romero as Hazel Hook (the iconic Peter Pan villain's daughter) and Alexandro Byrd as Luis Madrigal.
Maddox Hater takes on a larger role in the new film, with the synopsis teasing: "When Maddox captures the Queen of Hearts, Red and Chloe must work with Red's new sister Pink, Luisa Madrigal's son Luis and Maddox's son Max to save her and Wonderland."
While the film had enough interest to topple Avatar: Fire and Ash, it has had a more lukewarm initial reception from fans. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 68% approval rating from over 100 user reviews, which is a step up from The Rise of Red's rotten 43% audience score, but not quite as beloved as the first three movies.
Fans of the franchise praised the soundtrack, though some found it to be "unnecessary," and the time travel elements brought up some inconsistences that some viewers couldn't look past. "As a fan since the first movie, Descendants 5 is an impressive step forward for the franchise," one audience member wrote in a 4-star review.
Disney's Descendants Continues to be a Massive Hit for the Streamer
The Descendants franchise began more than a decade ago, with the first film debuting in 2015 and launching a new universe that continues on from Disney's animated classics. The original series starred Dove Cameron, Cameron Boyce, Sofia Carson and Boooboo Stewart, following the teenage children of four Disney villains on the Isle of Lost.
As the franchise grew, it expanded to include more characters, and the fourth film, Descendants: The Rise of Red, was a spin-off that introduced Cantrall and Baker into the fold. With its wide-reaching cast of beloved Disney characters and catchy soundtrack, the films have largely been a success for Disney. The original trilogy has amassed over 781 million hours viewed, and the latest installment seems eager to keep that number growing.
Descendants: Wicked Wonderland is now streaming on Disney+.
