After a fourth-month wait, Netflix viewers turned up by the tens of millions to see how Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon saga finished, but the number didn’t quite hit that of the first film.
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver was Netflix’s number-one English-language film last week with a reported 21.4 million views, hitting the top 10 in 92 countries. It even brought some viewers back to the first part as Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire also had 5.5 million viewers during the week. However, the new film did not reach the viewership of the first one’s December debut, which had 23.9 million views.
So, what does that tell us? Was everyone too busy listening to Taylor Swift? It’s possible. But the most obvious and likely scenario is after the largely negative reviews for the first, as well as the second, film, there just wasn’t as much desire and excitement for people to rush to their TVs and stream it. Now, to be fair, it’s still only 2.5 million viewers fewer. That’s not bad at all for the exact same reasons. Another way to look at it is of the 23.9 million people who watched Rebel Moon – Part One on its first weekend, all but 2.5 million came back to see Part Two. Roughly, of course.
The question from there becomes, is 21.4 million a big enough number for Snyder to keep returning to his universe? The Scargiver does not finish the story of its main characters, not by a long shot, and Snyder has said he has more story he’d like to tell. We’ll have to see in the coming weeks what Netflix decides to do.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.