By Senad Karaahmetovic
Shares of Warner Bros Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) are up about 1.5% in premarket Tuesday after HBO said the premiere of “House of the Dragon,” a prequel to “Game of Thrones,” attracted the largest audience of any new original series in its history.
The first episode, which aired on Sunday, was seen by 9.986 million viewers. HBO added that Sunday night viewership is typically about 20% to 40% of the show’s total audience.
“It was wonderful to see millions of ‘Game of Thrones’ fans return with us to Westeros last night,” commented Casey Bloys, chief content officer for HBO and HBO Max.
The premiere of “House of the Dragon” comes at times when HBO is looking to cut costs with WSJ reporting recently the WBD’s streaming division cut 70 staff.
The first episode currently has an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The WBD stock has seen its price target cut to $21 from $29 at Citi to reflect weaker-than-expected Q2 revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and DTC subscribers.
“We maintain our Buy rating, as we continue to like WBD on the merits of its DTC pivot and potential synergies from its recently closed merger,” a Citi analyst said in a client note yesterday.