Netflix Reported Box Office for the First Time, and the First Number Is $69,375 a Screen
Netflix has disclosed box office grosses for the first time, and the release it chose to report on was its awards hopeful “La Bola Negra,” which scored $277,500 from four theaters — a $69,375 average per location. The streamer says it will keep the film in theaters for 45 days, its longest theatrical rollout to date, before a Netflix release on Dec. 2. The per-screen average ranks as the second-highest ever for a non-English-language film, behind “Parasite,” which opened in 2019 to $393,216 from three theaters, or $131,072 per location. Netflix has reported the numbers at all.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The disclosure has a second function beyond publicity. Box office dollars are uniformly reported, so unlike streaming metrics — which can be twisted and touted in any direction — a number is either a hit or a miss, and Netflix has never won best picture. Reporting the gross makes the Oscar case legible to people who don't read streaming-hours charts.
Then again, Netflix spent years treating multiplexes as a marketing stunt rather than a financial strategy, and it never disclosed what its earlier theatrical runs made. A number released on the studio's own schedule is still a story the studio is telling about itself.