The news on the relatively late embargo has sparked concern that the verdicts from critics will be less than glowing for the DCEU’s all-star caper.
Mashable claims that the reviews will come out just “16 hours, 10 minutes and 0 seconds” before the first public screenings next week.
It is noted that movies with late embargo lifts tend to be the ones who are set to fare worse on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, which measures the critical consensus on new titles.
Recent examples include Monster Trucks, which scored just 32% when its reviews came out “1 day, 19 hours” before release; and Snatched, which scored 35% when reviews came out in the same window.
So is this a worrying sign for Justice League, or just cautious conservatism on the producers’ part?
It’s understandable if they might not want to allow reviewers to shout about it just yet, given that some of their most recent titles have suffered critically and commercially.
Last year’s Suicide Squad, for example, got just 26%, while Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice got 27%.
But after Wonder Woman became an almighty smash hit (92%), shouldn’t bosses be feeling a little more confident?
A more encouraging sign is the first wave of enthusiastic social media posts.
Earlier this week, those who had seen early screenings posted very positive tweets, with one saying: “A film worth waiting a person’s whole life for. So much better even than Wonder Woman.”
Justice League is out on November 17.