Kristen Stewart’s new film Happiest Season breaks records for streaming service Hulu with its debut

Kristen Stewart’s new film Happiest Season has broken records for streaming service Hulu with its debut weekend.

The film, which co-stars Mackenzie Davis, was Hulu’s most-watched original film for its debut weekend, Variety reported on Wednesday.

The movie also earned the distinction of having garnered more subscribers for the service than any previous release, sources told the publication, adding that it set new high marks for social media mentions on Twitter.

The storyline of the Clea DuVall-directed film centers around a lesbian couple named Abby (Stewart) and Harper (Davis), who pretend to be straight when visiting Harper’s parents Ted and Tipper (Victor Garber and Mary Steenburgen) for the holidays, as Harper hasn’t come out to her parents.

Stewart previously told People, ‘I think I’ve wished to see a gay Christmas rom-com my whole life. I’m so happy and proud of Clea for bringing this into the world.’

She added: ‘I love when holiday movie makes you long for an idea of home, but also examines how hilarious and hard reality at home can be sometimes.’

Sony’s Tri-Star Pictures initially owned rights to the film, selling it to Hulu as the coronavirus has closed movie theaters nationwide.

‘Obviously, we all wanted a theatrical release for this, and Sony was such a great partner,’ DuVall told Variety Monday. ‘But Hulu just took the ball and did such an incredible job, and were so passionate. It’s really heartening to me that so many people wanted to get this story out there.’

She added, ‘I also felt like it’s so long overdue for a movie like this to be made on this scale, you know? All I really was hoping for is that it would give studios or streamers the impression that movies like this have an audience, and that people want to see them.

‘I just wanted to do a good enough job that I would get to make more on a larger scale. That LGBTQ stories would be – you know, that there would be more of them!’