Netflix Reports Box Office for First Time via 'La Bola Negra' — SkimNews
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- La Bola Negra earned $277,500 from just four venues in New York and Los Angeles, averaging $69,375 per screen — the second-highest per-screen average for a non-English language film of all time.
- Netflix publicly disclosed box office grosses for the first time, a strategic shift from years of opacity; the streamer had only briefly revealed "Glass Onion" numbers without officially confirming them.
- Netflix plans roughly month-long theatrical windows for upcoming releases including David Fincher's "The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth," Greta Gerwig's "Narnia: The Magician's Nephew," Taika Waititi's "Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory," Peter Berg's "The Mosquito Bowl," and Danny Boyle's "Ink."
- Netflix laid off 1,000 employees and replaced Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria with Disney and Fox veteran Peter Rice, while the company's stock sits "in a rut," according to the article.
- La Bola Negra drew a younger crowd — 51% of opening weekend audiences were under 35, with 25-to-34-year-olds the largest group at 39% — the same demographic the article credits with driving the broader box office rebound.
- La Bola Negra, which Netflix acquired at Cannes for around $5 million, is positioned as a Best Picture contender that could potentially beat "The Odyssey" and deliver Netflix its first Academy Award in the category.
Why it matters: Netflix is voluntarily exposing itself to box office scrutiny at a moment its stock is 'in a rut' and 1,000 jobs just got cut. Apple learned the hard way: 'F1' was great to disclose, 'Fly Me to the Moon' and 'Argylle' weren't. Every upcoming Fincher and Gerwig gross is now an investor data point.
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