While Rebel Moon has been divisive among fans and critics, the film did manage to pull off an easy victory this weekend, with Netflix revealing it was their most-watched movie last week. With an estimated 23.9 million views, it easily took the lead over Leave the World Behind, which clocked 19.7 million views, although one should note that the film is in its third week of release and has pulled in blockbuster numbers for the streamer.
While Rebel Moon’s numbers are considered impressive, they aren’t even close to being record-breaking for the service, with the recent Adam Sandler animated movie Leo and David Fincher’s The Killer having bigger openings. However, with Netflix, the second weekend is usually considered more important as it includes an entire week of viewing (rather than just one weekend). It is a much better barometer of a movie’s word of mouth. With Rebel Moon being one of the service’s most ambitious offerings in some time, all eyes will be on the film’s second-week performance, which is expected to be excellent given the holidays. One shocking thing to note is that Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, one of Netflix’s big awards movies, isn’t on the top 10 list at all, despite being released two days before Rebel Moon. Could that pricey Leonard Bernstein biopic be considered something of a flop? Hopefully not, as I thought it was quite a good film, although it’s certainly a harder sell than the genre-oriented Rebel Moon or Leave the World Behind.
This seemingly hasn’t been a blockbuster year for Netflix Original movies, with only two titles, Jennifer Lopez’s The Mother and Extraction 2, cranking their ten most viewed movies of all time.
Did you take the chance to watch Rebel Moon this weekend? Let us know what you thought of the first part of Zack Snyder’s two-parter in the comments.