According to new data, Zack Snyder’s Justice League beat out The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in opening viewership ratings. The two superhero sagas, which launched respectively on HBO Max and Disney+ before the weekend of March 20, were both highly anticipated by their respective fan bases. Reception to both the Snyder Cut and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier has been overall positive so far, though the latter’s status as a limited series means it has a lot more still to show.
The days of DCEU movies competing directly with the MCU are mostly over, as Warner Bros. has focused more on individual films in recent years rather than Marvel’s sprawling franchise model. The release of the Snyder Cut has harkened back to the DCEU’s early days, however, when the franchise promised more blockbuster crossover films in line with The Avengers. Warner Bros. has recently reiterated that it has no plans to resume Zack Snyder’s initial DCEU story through additional movies.
Still, the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League has received much higher critical marks than the film’s 2017 theatrical cut, and new data shows it also outperformed The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in opening ratings. Per Deadline, Samba TV has reported that 1.8 million households viewed the Snyder Cut over the weekend of March 19-21. That barely edges out The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which clocked in at 1.7 million households on Disney+. The MCU series’ debut was the most-watched Disney+ premiere weekend to date, but it seems it wasn’t quite enough to outdo the Snyder Cut.
Though Zack Snyder’s Justice League certainly had an impressive opening weekend on HBO Max, it still fell notably short of the DCEU’s last feature release, Wonder Woman 1984, which drew 2.2 million households on HBO Max during its premiere weekend of December 25-27. Taken together, the two films mark the franchise’s biggest peak in popularity in years. Hopefully, that’s a sign of more good things to come.
With James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad releasing later in 2021 and both Ezra Miller and Ben Affleck returning for The Flash in 2022, there’s a reason for fans of the DCEU’s recent successes to stay excited. Whether or not the franchise will ever truly get back to a unified model à la, the MCU remains to be seen, especially with upcoming films like The Batman taking place in the entirely separate canon. Nonetheless, the critical and commercial success of Zack Snyder’s Justice League in itself is plenty of reason to celebrate.
Source: Deadline
