Netflix has made history with the Spanish-language film La Bola Negra, revealing its box office results for the very first time.
After a 16-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, Netflix snapped up La Bola Negra for $5 million.
Directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambross, the queer drama follows the intertwining stories of three men across multiple generations.
Netflix unveiled the film via a limited release over the past weekend, grossing $277,500 from just four theatres, an average of $69,375 per location.
That is second all-time by a non-English language film, behind 2019’s Parasite, which went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars following an opening of $393,216 across three theatres.
What’s more, Netflix plans to keep La Bola Negra in theatres for an industry-standard 45 days, which will be its longest cinema release to date.
A shifting strategy
Previously, Netflix threw out the odd 14-day cinema release to some of its larger titles, such as the Knives Out sequels or Frankenstein.
It’s a tactic it still employs to satisfy cinemagoers and generate some buzz before a film releases very shortly after the theatrical window on the streamer.
Ray Gunn, for instance, which recently had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, will open in cinemas on 4 December before streaming on Netflix from 18 December.
La Bola Negra represents a shifting attitude for the once cinema-averse Netflix.
Box office reporting will continue with David Fincher’s The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth later this year and Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew in 2027.
The latter represents Netflix’s biggest theatrical release ever, a production costing over $200 million, opening in IMAX and running in theatres from February before an April streaming release.
It goes to show that Netflix is eyeing up theatrical releases as a serious revenue stream to bolster its wider operation.
This new commitment to the big screen, fledgling though it may be, also suggests Netflix was serious about its intentions to keep Warner Bros. a strictly theatrical property before Paramount swooped in and snatched that prize asset away.
Can ‘La Bola Negra’ win Netflix its first Best Picture Oscar?
Another likely reason behind Netflix’s push to theatres is a bid for the Academy to take it more seriously.
Netflix is still chasing its first Best Picture win, and La Bola Negra is one of its best chances yet.
The box office parallels with Parasite won’t go unnoticed, nor will its joint-winning Cannes Best Director prize and its Toronto Film Festival People’s Choice Award.
So, while Paramount-Warner Bros. will likely see safe franchise bets, layoffs, and more strife heaped upon Hollywood, could the former anti-cinema powerhouse that is Netflix swoop in and be the saviour of independent, creative theatrical releases?
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