Zack Snyder Pits Rebel Moon Against Barbie, Says More People Watched His Film

Zack Snyder's ambitious sci-fi action project, Rebel Moon: Part 1 - Child of Fire has found a cult following of its own. The same can be said about Greta Gerwig's 2023 utopian fantasia, Barbie. Snyder however, feels Rebel Moon has made a much stronger case with the audience in comparison to the billion-minting Barbie.

Zack Snyder asserts more people watched Rebel Moon than Barbie

In a recent interaction with Gizmodo, Zack Snyder laid down the numerical facts, as he weighed his film Rebel Moon's success to that of Barbie's. The veracity of his argument was that he was simply quoting official numbers provided to him by Netflix. The director said, "What I was implying was, well, there are two things. One is I was just going by the numbers that I was given by Netflix. People are like, ‘Oh, well, Snyder’s crazy’ but literally I just am doing (math) with this, not anything else."

Snyder acknowledged that many have and will continue to find his assessment far-fetched. However, doubling down on his statement, he added, "If now we’re close to 100 million viewers, 100 million views times two is 200 million views...So, people are like, ‘Snyder’s delusional,’ and I am just like ‘I don’t know what to tell you'."

Zack Snyder reflects on the theatre experience's cultural significance

Snyder's comparison of the two films led him down a deeper reflection. The filmmaker spoke about the importance of the theatre experience. The same he said, essentially harboured the power to redirect discourse on what was more culturally significant. 

He said, "The cultural significance of Barbie was happening when it was in the theatres. That’s when we all took a bite of the Barbie apple, and happily. And so my only point is that I think there is a theatrical zeitgeist (and) even though maybe more people have eyes on something, the actual sort of cultural significance is dictated still by the theatre." While Rebel Moon: Part 1 - Child of Fire is currently streaming on Netflix, Barbie can be streamed on Jio Cinema.