Audiences are rewatching the film adaptation of J.D. Vance's memoir Hillbilly Elegy after the author was named former President Donald Trump's running mate in the upcoming presidential election.
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Viewership of the film on Netflix grew 1,180% to 19.2 million minutes watched on July 15, according to data from Luminate. Compare that to the 1.5 million minutes watched the day before.
The film runs just under two hours, so Monday's numbers put it at about 164,000 viewers — far more than the 9,000 or so who tuned in Sunday. Rumors of Vance's selection had already begun swirling on Sunday, which could also have caused an upward trend in the film's viewership before the official announcement.
Hillbilly Elegy was about the decline of the white working class. When it was published in the summer of 2016, it was seen by conservatives and liberals alike as a way to understand why such a large segment of the population felt alienated from society. His family's history was one of struggle, abuse, alcoholism, and poverty.
