Netflix Reports Box Office Grosses for First Time Ever — SkimNews
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- Netflix disclosed box office grosses for the first time in its history, with "La Bola Negra" earning $277,500 from four theaters averaging $69,375 per location — the second-highest screen average ever for a non-English language film behind 2019's "Parasite" ($131,072 average from three theaters), and the highest-ever per-screen average for a Spanish-language film.
- Netflix plans to keep "La Bola Negra" in theaters for 45 days before its Dec. 2 streaming debut — its longest theatrical rollout to date — and says it will also report grosses for David Fincher's "The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth" around Thanksgiving, plus Greta Gerwig's "Narnia: The Magician's Nephew" and Taika Waititi's "Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory" in 2027.
- "La Bola Negra", directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi (Los Javis), was acquired by Netflix for around $5 million after a 16-minute standing ovation at Cannes, tied for that festival's best director prize, and won the Toronto Film Festival People's Choice Award — historically a reliable indicator of Academy Awards attention.
- Netflix has previously treated theatrical runs as "marketing stunts" to drive interest back to the platform rather than revenue plays, never disclosing grosses for earlier limited outings like 2022's "Glass Onion," the "Kpop Demon Hunters" re-release, or the "Stranger Things" series finale.
- The transparency pivot lands as Netflix's stock has been languishing, the company laid off roughly 1,000 employees last week, and chief content officer Bela Bajaria was replaced by Disney veteran Peter Rice — with Netflix still chasing its first Best Picture Oscar after years of opaque streaming metrics the source notes could be "twisted and touted in any which way."
Why it matters: For exhibitors who long battled Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos's dismissal of theaters as an "outmoded idea," uniform box office reporting finally gives cinemas the receipts they were never shown before — a tangible concession that even modest $277,500 debuts like "La Bola Negra's" beat continued opacity. But the underlying motive is awards-driven: Netflix has never won Best Picture, and unspinable per-screen averages now give Academy voters and trade press a concrete commercial benchmark to point to, something streamer's own opaque viewership numbers could never provide.
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