'Army Of The Dead': Netflix Touts Impressive Viewership Numbers For Zack Snyder's Zombie Film

To say that Zack Snyder has had a productive 2021 is an understatement. Not only has he released one of the most anticipated films of the year back in March, “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” which basically ate up the cultural discussion for weeks on end, the filmmaker just released his first feature for Netflix, “Army of the Dead.” And it appears, at least judging from Netflix’s analytics, the zombie film is a massive hit for the platform.

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According to Netflix, Zack Snyder’s “Army of the Dead” is projected to be watched by 72 million households over its first four weeks of release. If you’re a discerning reader, you may see words such as “projected” and “watched” and know that this isn’t a very scientific analysis. Well, much like other Netflix numbers the streamer is keen on releasing, there’s a bit of guesswork and ambiguity. The service likes to wait a week and then announces projections for how well a film is going to do over its first month. In addition, Netflix (along with other streamers) never really confirms what it means to “watch” a film on the platform, with most people reporting that it means a subscriber watched at least 5 minutes of the film.

All that to say, Netflix gave us a big number to digest and very little to back it up. Basically, exactly what the streamer is known to do. However, because Netflix is so consistent with how it reports numbers, we can do a pretty solid apples-to-apples comparison with other films from the streaming service to see how “Army of the Dead” stacks up with previous hits.

The top slot, at least in terms of what Netflix has released, belongs to Chris Hemsworth’s action film, “Extraction,” with 99 million households over its first four weeks. Then you have films like “Bird Box” (89 million), “Spenser Confidential” (85 million),” and “6 Underground” (83 million). If you slot in “Army of the Dead” and its 72 million views, you’re looking at it tying for 9th place with “The Midnight Sky.” Definitely a solid showing, especially when you consider the film also was released in theaters in Netflix’s most aggressive theatrical push yet.

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So, at the end of the day, congrats to Zack Snyder for having a massive debut for “Army of the Dead.” It would be shocking to see him struggle to find a location for his next film, as you have to assume Netflix is going to want to sign him up pretty quickly.