Zack Snyder admitted that he was forced to abandon his initial plan to release HBO Max’s Justice League as a miniseries because there was too much legal and contractual red tape involved in taking a movie that had already played in theaters and refitting it as a TV show. However, splitting the four-hour epic into chapters still allows viewers who aren’t sold on the idea of watching a 242-minute film in one sitting to take a breather every now and again.
It would be an understatement to say that the Snyder Cut has grabbed more than a few headlines over the last couple of weeks, with fans relentlessly campaigning Warner Bros. to #RestoreTheSnyderVerse, and even watching Justice League and the Justice Is Gray Edition on repeat at the encouragement of the director to increase both awareness and viewership numbers.
However, a new study by analytics firm Samba TV reveals that over 60% of their sample audience didn’t make it all the way through Justice League in the first week it was available. Of course, we should point out that the data only pertains to those that have the third-party aggregator’s software installed on their televisions, but it’s an interesting look at the Snyder Cut in a microcosm nonetheless.
As per Samba TV’s findings, just 36% of the 1.8 million households that fired up Justice League made it to the closing credits in one sitting. That initial figure is comprised of households to have streamed the movie for at least five minutes, with the numbers indicating that only 800,000 of them stuck with the refitted project until it faded to black. While it’s hardly a definitive look at viewership habits, it’s also important to note that not everyone is in love with the Snyder Cut to the same extent as the filmmaker’s staunchest supporters.