“If it had been released in cinemas, that means 160 million people would have seen it”: Rebels on the Moon was watched more than Barbie for the director of the Netflix movie.

A few days ago, actress Sofia Boutella responded to press criticism of Rebel Moon, the space opera directed by Zack Snyder, which Netflix offered to its subscribers at the end of last year. This time it’s the filmmaker’s turn to dot the i’s.

“Rebel Moon has 80-90 million views”

Guest on the set of the program Joe RoganSnyder wanted to restore the truth. Even if the reviews are quite average, the first part of Rebel Moon achieved good numbers. And let’s compare Barbie, one of 2023’s biggest hits in theaters, with $1.4 billion worldwide:

“Rebel Moon has 80-90 million views so far. They assume it’s two people per view. If it had been a theatrical release, that means 160 million people would have seen it.

If we multiply by the ticket price, i.e. $10, that’s $1.6 billion won. So probably more people have seen Rebel Moon than Barbie in the movies. It’s the Netflix model that’s incredible. ”

If we have to take this comparison with a grain of salt, it’s because it’s impossible to know how many people actually watched Rebel Moon – and made it to the end (but that’s another story).

The peculiarity of Netflix is ​​that it gives the subscriber access to its catalog at any time and on any device. Which obviously plays in numbers.

Snyder and Netflix, a business that’s going well

In 2021, Snyder decided to leave Warner and join Netflix. The director is fascinated by the creative freedom it has bought him, the economic model of the streaming platform and the opportunity for his work to be seen around the world. Several films were born from this collaboration – including the Army of the Dead and Rebel Moon franchises.

The platform will offer Part 2 in 2024 (April 19) as well as extended versions of each of the two films. Snyder and his teams are simultaneously working on Rebel Moon 3, which has yet to be officially announced by Netflix.