Zack Snyder recently appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience to discuss a variety of topics. While talking about his sci-fi epic Rebel Moon, which was released on Netflix. he says that more people “probably” watched his film than saw Barbie in theaters.
He explained the magic of Netflix and the numbers of it all, saying:
“You think about Netflix, for instance, where you push a button. Rebel Moon, right? Say right now it’s almost at 90 million views, right? 80 or 90 million accounts turned it on, give or take. They assume two viewers per screening, right? That’s the kind of math. So you think if that movie was in the theater as a distribution model, that’s like 160,000,000 people supposedly watching based on that math. 160,000,000 people at $10 a ticket would be…what is that math? I don’t know. 160,000,000 times ten. That’s 1.6 billion. So more people probably saw Rebel Moon than saw Barbie in the theater, right?”
Barbie made $1.446 billion at the global box office, so according to Snyder’s math of $10 a ticket, that would mean around 144,600,000 people paid to see Barbie in theaters. Snyder went on talk boast about Netflix’s distribution model saying:
“That’s how crazy Netflix is. That’s the distribution model that they’ve set up. I was at this thing the other day, and we were talking about Rebel Moon 2. And they were like, ‘Well, talk about Rebel Moon, the first one.’ I’m like, ‘No, go f****ing watch it. I know you have it at your house.’ It’s not like a theater situation. You could turn it on your phone right now and watch it right here if you wanted. That’s how crazy it is. This model, this machine they’ve built, is really something else. It’s really crazy if you think about it.”
Snyder is obviously very happy with Netflix which is where he has a couple of film franchises set up with Army of the Dead and Rebel Moon. Of course, he’s going to hype it up.
However, the biggest difference between Rebel Moon and Barbie are the reviews. Rebel Moon had a 21% critic score and a 58% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Barbie has an 88% critic score and 83% audience score. So, according to Snyder’s math, More people tuned in to be disappointed in his movie than enjoy it.
Look, I’m actually a fan of a lot of Snyder’s work. He’s got the visual filmmaking style down, he just needs to work on his strengthening his storytelling, writing, and character development.
