The best movie in 2023 that most people stopped paying attention to after 20 minutes is making a splash again, and as writer-director Zack Snyder would have us believe, Moonlight: Part 1 would be a huge success if Released in 2023, it will gross as much as Barbie ($1.4 billion). theaters instead of just streaming on Netflix.
Even those who have loyally defended every film from the divisive filmmaker and loved the first Rebel Moon are now scratching their heads, as Snyder told Variety in an interview to come up with the idea. The number crunching to reach such a wild conclusion seems questionable to say the least.
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Before I get into why this is That’s the kind of delusional rhetoric you’d expect to hear from his rabid fan base rather than the man himself
He didn’t even trust his on-set calculations, but he ended the process by saying with a straight face that every “screening” of Rebel Moon involved two people, and that everyone made it through the entire process, check out that on Rotten Tomatoes Audience ratings, can be hard to digest. From a certain perspective, Rebellious Moon was a “hit” for Netflix, meaning a lot of subscribers pressed the play button. But as we know from past streaming data, most people don’t finish the movie they start watching, especially when the reviews aren’t kind to them. So this needs to be taken into consideration.
Additionally, Snyder flat-out ignores that, given a big enough marketing push, movies with poor ratings often do well on streaming, as subtitles often try to get their money’s worth out of the subtitles. Comparing its streaming performance to any kind of theatrical staying power doesn’t cut it with reality, as people have traditionally been more picky about how much they spend on movies, with one ticket now equivalent to a monthly Netflix subscription. By that logic, Morbius should be a box office hit since it’s doing well on Netflix a few months after flopping.
The filmmaker, who I once sincerely respected, then went on to ramble on about the strengths of Netflix and the virtues of their model. Of course, half of what he said was just PR talk, but he also seemed to sincerely believe that this could be his path forward after parting ways with Warner Bros. and other major studios that wouldn’t fund his post-DC adventures. Meanwhile, everyone except Netflix (which, by the way, is still heavily in debt despite its impressive growth) is refocusing its streaming plans and shifting its focus back to movie theaters.