Zack Snyder is used to topping the box office, but his latest release has conquered a different playing field. While 2021’s Army of the Dead had a limited theatrical release before its arrival on Netflix, his newest, Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, went straight to the streamer, and seems to be reaping the rewards of that decision.
The sci-fi epic, which Snyder directed and co-wrote, debuted in the top spot on Netflix’s English-language films list on December 18 with 23.9 million views, according to the streamer. It also claimed spots in the top 10 of 93 different countries (with quite a few #1s) across the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia and New Zealand.
Coming in behind Rebel Moon was the Julia Roberts-starring apocalyptic tale Leave the World Behind, which had a brief theatrical run before arriving on Netflix on December 8. It was in second place with 19.7 million views. The rest of the top 10 was heavy on movies aimed at kids and families (Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Leo, Family Switch) and holiday entertainment seekers; both Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch and How the Grinch Stole Christmas made the top 10.
What will be interesting moving forward is to see if Rebel Moon – Part One will continue to build on its audience even as tepid critical reactions to the film begin to circulate—and whether it’ll grab as many eyeballs when Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver hits Netflix April 19.