Credit: Unsplash
Debates about movie runtimes have been a common topic among my friends and family. I have noticed a trend where movies used to be much shorter, typically around 90 minutes. Nowadays, it seems like a movie needs to be at least 2 hours to be considered a big-budget production. With the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League on HBO Max, it has become apparent that longer movies may not always hold viewers’ attention throughout.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is an impressive four hours in length, which is longer than even Avengers: Endgame at 3 hours. The Snyder Cut demands a significant time commitment, which some viewers are finding challenging to maintain. Data gathered by Samba TV, a viewership tracking engine, reveals that out of 1.8 million HBO Max accounts that began watching the movie, only approximately one-third managed to watch it in its entirety.
For years, the #SnyderCut existed in black and white and shown only to a select few.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League: #JusticeIsGray, a black and white version of the film, is now streaming on @HBOMax in 4K UHD, HDR10, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos on supported devices. pic.twitter.com/3c40221N27
— Zack Snyder’s Justice League (@snydercut) March 25, 2021
It’s important to note that not all viewers are abandoning the movie entirely after the first hour, although some may be doing so. According to Jeffrey Silverman, the director at Samba TV, their algorithm defines a “view” as someone who watches at least the first five minutes of the movie and a “finish” as someone who watches the entire film without interruption. Some HBO Max users have shared that instead of dedicating an entire afternoon to watching the movie in one sitting, they have chosen to watch the film’s six chapters separately over several days, treating it like a mini-series. These multiple viewings are not counted separately, potentially skewing the statistics.
Analysts predict that it may take several weeks, or even longer, to accurately gauge the popularity of the Snyder Cut. It is hoped that all the fans who have long awaited its release have taken the time to watch the full movie.
