In a major shift in the theatrical tides, Netflix has reported box office grosses for the first time ever.
The streamer’s awards hopeful “La Bola Negra” scored $277,500 from just four theaters, averaging $69,375 per location. Those ticket sales are notable as the second-highest screen average ever for a non-English language film behind 2019’s “Parasite,” which opened to $393,216 from three theaters, averaging $131,072 per location. It’s also the highest-ever PSA — the key metric for arthouse releases — for a Spanish language film. By comparison, Neon’s multilingual legal thriller “Fjord,” another Oscar contender, debuted last weekend to $124,000 from four theaters, translating to $31,000 per location.
Now the test is whether “La Bola Negra” can sustain momentum as Netflix slowly expands the movie’s footprint in the weeks to come. The streamer plans to keep the film in theaters for 45 days, a traditional window in post-pandemic times and the company’s longest theatrical rollout to date, before its Netflix release on Dec. 2. Directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, known as Los Javis, “La Bola Negra” is a generation-spanning queer epic that chronicles the interconnected story of three men. After the drama was embraced at Cannes Film Festival with a 16-minute standing ovation, Netflix acquired the movie for around $5 million. “La Bola Negra” tied for the Cannes best director prize and won Toronto Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award, which has historically been a reliable indicator of Academy Awards attention.
Netflix has long been viewed as a major big-screen adversary, probably because the company’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos has frequently dismissed movie theaters as an “outmoded idea.” And while the streamer has been warming to theaters beyond just Oscar-qualifying runs, with token releases for 2022’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story” and last year’s”Kpop Demon Hunters” re-release and the “Stranger Things” series finale, Netflix has never disclosed how much those movies made in cinemas.
In the past, Netflix has viewed multiplexes, not as a financial strategy, but rather as a marketing stunt to drive interest pack to the platform. But there are other benefits to box office reporting for Netflix, which has never won the coveted best picture Oscar. Unlike streaming metrics, which can be twisted and touted in any which way, box office dollars are uniformly reported — meaning there’s no denying a hit (or a miss). Netflix’s change in strategy comes as the streamer’s stock has been languishing. Last week, the company laid off 1,000 employees and replaced chief content officer Bela Bajaria with Disney veteran Peter Rice.
Moving forward, Netflix plans to disclose grosses for upcoming releases such as David Fincher’s “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” around Thanksgiving and Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” and Taika Waititi’s animated “Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory” in 2027. Whether those buzzy projects achieve breakout status, Netflix’s new attention toward theatrical is a win for exhibitors, who are already celebrating the biggest post-COVID year at the box office.