JD Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” tops Amazon book and Netflix film charts after he's chosen as VP nominee
Less than 24 hours after former President Donald Trump announced Ohio Sen. JD Vance was his vice-presidential pick, Vance’s 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” shot to the top of Amazon’s bestselling books.
The instant bestseller turned Vance into a media star and was later adapted into an Oscar-nominated film directed by Ron Howard.
On Tuesday, the 2020 film adaptation of “Hillbilly Elegy,” starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams, was the 6th most-watched movie on Netflix’s Top 10 in the US, as seen on the streamer’s platform.
Viewership of “Hillbilly Elegy” increased by 1,179% on Netflix compared to the day before Vance’s VP bid, according to research from Luminate, which adds that the film was watched for 19.2 million minutes on Monday, jumping from the 1.5 million minutes the movie was watched on Sunday, when rumors were swirling of Vance’s appointment.
When “Hillbilly Elegy” first debuted, it launched to mostly negative reviews and was largely panned by critics, though Close and Adams received praise for their performances portraying Vance’s grandmother and mother, respectively, as well as the actor Gabriel Basso, who played a younger version of Vance. Close notably was nominated for “Hillbilly Elegy” at both the Oscars and the Razzie Awards, which is the ceremony that infamously honors the worst in cinema every year.
“Hillbilly Elegy” chronicles Vance’s childhood in Appalachia, which he wrote was plagued with poverty, abuse and his mother’s addiction. At the time of “Hillbilly Elegy’s” release, the book was widely discussed as an explanation for Trump’s rise among the White working class. Vance, a Yale Law School graduate, later became a venture capitalist before being elected to the Senate in 2022.
No comments: