If you watched HBO’s premiere of the Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra this past Sunday night, you unknowingly helped the network set a new record.

CBS reports that the Steven Soderbergh-directed film, draw in an estimated 3.5 million viewers across its back-to-back showing, making it the most-watched HBO movie since 2004. The movie that held that title for almost a decade was Something the Lord Made with 2.6 million viewers, according to USA Today.

Behind the Candelabra, which depicts the five-year romantic relationship between pianist Liberace and his younger lover Scott Thorson, attracted 2.4 million viewers in its first airing and an additional 1.1 million for its encore presentation. The film stars Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as Thorson, as well as an all-star supporting cast including Dan Aykroyd, Scott Bakula, Rob Lowe, Debbie Reynolds, Tom Papa and Paul Reiser.

As if these ratings weren’t impressive enough, there’s something to say about the fact that it was a Memorial Day weekend, a time that is typically categorized by barbecues, going away on vacation, parades, and getting together with family and friends–things that don’t involve spending time in front of the television.

The assumption that television viewership would be slow this holiday weekend was obliviously quite wrong given HBO’s success Sunday. According to AceShowBiz, numerous celebrities assisted in making the record-breaking ratings happen.

Cher said she was deeply moved by the film, tweeting, “At end I felt tears streaming down my cheeks. It was tiny bit slow, but it showed Unvarnished Human Frailty. Michael & Matt were both AMAZING.”

Comedian Patton Oswalt was also moved to tears, tweeting, “Oh goddamit, this ending is genuinely making me cry” and “Also, you can easily see what’s behind a candelabra just by looking at it straight on.”

“True Blood” star Tara Buck wrote on her Twitter that it was “a moving, beautifully human and timely film” and commented on Lowe’s depiction as Liberace’s plastic surgeon Dr. Startz saying that he “really freaked [her] the hell out.”

This reaction was apparently exactly what Lowe was going for. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor said in speaking of his character, “I wanted him to be at once repellant and engaging, if that’s possible.” Moreover, he said that he spent an hour and 45 minutes a day in makeup and that the physical transformation that he underwent was “really painful being pulled that long and that hard for a 12-hour day.” He even explained that it caused him to have migraines.

Luckily for Lowe, Sunday’s ratings proves it was all worth it.