Justice League Snyder Cut Drives HBO Max To Biggest Increase Among Streaming Services

Just weeks after a claim by WarnerMedia that HBO Max was generating more revenue than Disney+, new statistics indicate that the platform had the biggest increase in "ratings" -- really, downloads of the platform's content -- week over week. The new success is driven in large part by the unprecedented spectacle of Zack Snyder's Justice League, which debuted last week. Week over week, HBO Max's downloads increased by more than 60%. That's a huge number that's more than the increases of Disney+, Showtime, Roku, and AT&T TV combined, although it's likely good news for WarnerMedia that AT&T TV had the second most growth last week.

Of course, these numbers are all based on best guesses, considering that Netflix (still the service with both the most subscribers and the most revenue), Disney, and virtually every other company in the streaming domain don't make their numbers public. You can only base your understanding on what is available, what's been said at investor meetings and tax forms, and ratings estimates.

Snyder has said that he's unlikely to make any more DC movies, but with fan outcry to "Restore the Snyderverse," it's possible that Justice League will continue to have an outsized impact on streaming numbers. Many of the filmmaker's staunchest supporters are rewatching the film over and over, in the hopes of making a further impression on WarnerMedia.

At a recent AT&T analyst day, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar claimed that HBO Max has surpassed Disney+ in revenue generation, powered by a growing subscriber base, a higher base cost, and Warner Bros.' strategy of bringing all of their 2021 theatrical releases to the streaming platform. Disney+ has attracted a lot of attention for generating a ton of revenue by running up an enormous number of subscribers in its first year and change of existence, and while HBO Max doesn't approach those numbers, Kilar says that it has surpassed the 41 million subscriber mark AT&T's internal analytics had projected for the end of 2022.

In Zack Snyder's Justice League, determined to ensure Superman's (Henry Cavill) ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) aligns forces with Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions. The task proves more difficult than Bruce imagined, as each of the recruits must face the demons of their own pasts to transcend that which has held them back, allowing them to come together, finally forming an unprecedented league of heroes. Now united, Batman (Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) may be too late to save the planet from Steppenwolf, DeSaad and Darkseid and their dreadful intentions.