Netflix Reports Box Office Grosses for the First Time as La Bola Negra
Summary
The streamer broke with its longstanding secrecy on Sunday, posting a $69,375 per-screen average for Los Javis' Cannes prize winner.
"Netflix publicly reported theatrical grosses for the first time on Sunday, October 18, disclosing that La Bola Negra earned an estimated $277,500 from four theaters in New York and Los Angeles over its opening weekend, a $69,375 per-screen average, according to Filmofilia, High On Films and The Express Tribune, all citing reporting by Variety and Deadline. The film opened October 16 at the Paris Theater and Angelika in New York and at AMC Century City and AMC Burbank in Los Angeles. Filmofilia, citing Deadline, reported $108,300 on Friday and $84,600 on Saturday. Per Variety, as cited by Filmofilia, the opening is the highest average ever for a Spanish-language film and the second-highest for a non-English-language film, behind Parasite's $131,072 average from three locations in 2019.
The historical drama from Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, known as Los Javis, draws on an unfinished Federico Garcia Lorca play and follows gay men across three time periods, with Penelope Cruz and Glenn Close in the cast. Los Javis shared the directing prize at Cannes, where Netflix reportedly acquired the film for about $5 million, and it won the audience award at TIFF, per Filmofilia and High On Films.
The Express Tribune reported that Netflix plans to report grosses for select upcoming releases including The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, Narnia: The Magician's Nephew and the animated Charlie and the Chocolate Factory project. La Bola Negra expands before a wider release on November 6 and begins streaming December 2, which High On Films, citing the Los Angeles Times, described as a 45-day theatrical window."