Netflix Finally Reports Box Office Data. Why Does It Start with "La Bola Negra"?

Streamer's Promising Awards Are a Trial Balloon — Limited Release on Four Screens This Weekend — Before It Truly Tries to Make Noise With "Cliff Booth" and "Narnia."

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Netflix's mandate has always been, we want you to watch movies on Netflix. The country has reluctantly released some films to honor or appease auteur filmmakers like Guillermo del Toro and Martin Scorsese, and has even bought and renovated a few movie palaces to show its love of cinema.

But putting movies in theaters and bragging about how much they made has never been a big deal. Even when it looks like it's hit the ground running with a feature-length version of K-Pop Demon Hunter, Netflix never wants to take a victory lap, because doing so leaves it with egg on its face when things don't go well. There are hits and misses for every studio. Just ask Apple, which enjoyed the scrutiny it enjoyed while everything was on display. RELATED STORIES The Future of Cinema Austin Film Society's own cinema opens new John H. McCall Theater with screenings of 'Paper Tiger' and 4K restorations.

That finally changed with Netflix's 2026 major awards show, Cannes and TIFF darling "La Bola Negra." It's an ambitious, sprawling Spanish war and LGBTQ epic that's a must-see on the big screen for its record-breaking inspiration. Standing ovations and winning audience awards from festival crowds who've seen it. The film will open in limited release on just four screens on Friday in Los Angeles and New York, including on Netflix in Paris as well as the two major AMCs in Los Angeles, chains that have historically refused to play Netflix movies.

CEO Ted Sarandos said in his Screentime conference interview that Netflix brought 30 movies into theaters last year, each with its own customized, limited release strategy, and "La Bola Negra" is no different.

What's different is that it offers the longest theatrical exclusivity window — 47 days — it's ever offered before a movie goes live, and it's the first time it actually reports on what the movie is making in theaters. The hope is that the strong per-page average will lead to a longer word-of-mouth campaign for the film during those 47 days, and will design the platform to not hurt the film later after streaming.

"We look at this model and say, how do we serve moviegoers who might want to see this movie in theaters, and how do we not hurt the value of Netflix, and how do we position the movie in the best way in the world," Sarandos said. He added that arthouse movies like "Labula Negra" and "Dream Train" should be treated differently than four-quarter movies like Greta Gerwig's "Narnia: The Sorcerer's Nephew" or the animated "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

Whatever it makes, "La Bola Negra" will be a box office record for Netflix, but only because Netflix has literally not reported publicly what its other theatrical and award-winning plays have brought in over the years. not once The streamer has broken the tradition that every movie studio has always done when discussing how to run their movies, and it has given the impression that Netflix, fairly or unfairly, hasn't cared as much about the theater and the theater experience as everyone else.

Netflix's messaging began to change when it prepared to buy the film assets of Warner Bros. Discovery, before Paramount swooped in with a better deal for the entire company. Suddenly, executives Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters were talking about how much they love cinema and making promises about 45-day windows to convince skeptics about how an old studio like Warner Bros. works.

So why is Netflix doing all this now, and why with a movie like "La Bola Negra" that has no stars, is not in English, and is not based on an IP? Because Saranos is a smart cookie. Perhaps contrary to popular belief, Saranos didn't open the Warner Bros. books and realize for the first time that movies could actually make money in theaters.

Another potential prize comes later this year with David Fincher's The Next Misadventure of Cliff Booth, a box office sequel starring Brad Pitt. Also released is the first trailer for Gerwig's highly anticipated Narnia: The Magician's Nephew coming out early next year, and it wouldn't be surprising if people see that trailer before La Bola Negra premieres. Both of these films, as well as Danny Boyle's "Ink" and Peter Berg's "Mosquito Bowl," will have traditional box office reports just like Labula Negra.

With "Cliff Booth" and "Narnia," those films are each in IMAX, and Netflix is currently in talks with exhibitors at "Cliff Booth" to lock down a footprint for that film, but AMC and its roughly 200 to 300 IMAX locations have already agreed to show it on Thanksgiving. "Narnia" will open even beyond IMAX, and the hope is that both of these major venues can deliver strong results.

But to secure those relationships with exhibitors and get the screens needed to keep the theater afloat, IndieWire understands that Netflix will have to agree to more favorable terms than those theaters typically book for other major studios, which typically split ticket sales 50-50. This may also be necessary as a means of getting the unique theatrical window that Netflix wants. Netflix had no comments to add.

There are a few things that may have changed that led Netflix to this point, and the streamer's logic is likely a combination of them all rather than just one. The first and most obvious is that it brings a play from filmmakers that Netflix has had trouble securing in the past, with Gerwig at the top of that list. Star talent also needs box office, not just streaming figures, to warrant these days. Second, Netflix has likely seen how its licensing deal with Sony for those films works: In general, the Sony films that do best in theaters are the ones that do best on Netflix (with the exception of something like Madame Web), though Sarandos argued in his Screentime interview that theatrical films are no longer better than other original films. Third, if Netflix wants to be able to release movies in theaters and then quickly move them directly to Netflix, the window for that may close as other studios begin to agree to other windowing standards for when a movie can go from theaters to PVOD and then to SVOD.

Another area Netflix has to contend with is marketing costs. Theatrical movies require tens of millions of dollars spent on trailers and promotional materials to create awareness and drive people to the theater, which is a bigger ask than getting them to click a button to start playing a movie they may not have heard of. Many studios have a habit of making a lot of good money after a bad one, even when it does poorly (here's looking at you "Digger"), so finding the right balance is something Netflix needs to figure out.

But the secret is that distributors like Amazon and Apple (when it was messing with the show) have come to the conclusion that, while they want all of these movies to be successful, if the box office can cover the marketing costs, they've done their job and essentially provided a huge free marketing campaign for when the movie is going to be released. Movies with that theatrical push have been proven to do better in subsequent streams, and Netflix may eventually want to reap the benefits. Sarandos said that if a movie on Netflix is ​​going to be somewhat successful, it has to be because it does well at the box office. Furthermore, how many Netflix originals have entered the cultural conversation as theatrical films? "KPop Demon Hunters", "The Kissing Booth", maybe "Bird Box" and some others, and after that it gets challenging unless you're a "light" stan.

Netflix is likely saying that even with these big movies coming to theaters soon, the reported box office numbers overall don't indicate a change in strategy. It still produces dozens of movies that are just showing up and will do great with or without theaters. But it represents a shift for the industry as a whole. And if Netflix's few successes can create a stronger theater market, everyone will benefit.