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“La Bola Negra”, a historical epic that is seen as a major Oscar candidate, opened in limited release this weekend. The film’s gross was strong, with “La Bola Negra” earning $277,500 from just four centers in New York and Los Angeles, for a per-screen average of $69,375. This is the second highest per-screen average for a non-English language film of all time. But more importantly the film is also making history, and this was the first Netflix release ever to publicly reveal the box office gross.
That marks a shift in strategy for the streamer, which has released movies only in theaters for several weeks to qualify for Oscars, but has been deceptive about how much money they actually make. He briefly pulled back the curtain on the results for “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” but never officially. But it’s a new day, it’s a new day for Netflix, which will start reporting box office results like the rest of the studio and its streaming brethren.
So get ready for headlines as David Fincher’s “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth,” Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew,” Taika Waititi’s animated feature “Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory,” Peter Berg’s “The Mosquito Bowl,” and Danny Boyle’s “Ink” all have unusual fare windows when they all get theatrical windows or more. will Netflix give them access to more screens. But will Netflix like the review?
But Netflix has bigger problems right now. His stock is in dire straits and he’s just implemented a punishing wave of layoffs, shedding 1,000 employees and firing Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria in favor of Fox and Disney vet Peter Rice. Will embracing traditional theatrical releases provide a valuable new source of revenue for Netflix or will Wall Street treat box office grosses as another metric to pump Ted Sarandos when they lack it?
So far, Netflix seems happy with the results. The streamer noted that “La Bola Negra’s” take on gay history appealed to younger audiences, the same ones driving the box office comeback. To that end, 51% of its opening weekend crowd was under the age of 35, with ticket buyers aged 25 to 34 making up the largest age group at 39%.
“La Bola Negra,” which Netflix picked up at Cannes for about $5 million, may be important in another key way. It seems that the voters of the awards accept it and there is a chance that it could overtake “The Odyssey” to win the Oscar for the best picture that Netflix has had for a long time. That kind of confirmation would be worth a lot more than the historical epic is earning at the box office.
