Although it failed to acquire Warner Bros., Netflix will wade further into the theatrical marketplace after years of staying out of it, reporting box office grosses for the first time for a handful of movies it will bring to the big screen.
Netflix will start reporting box office grosses with its upcoming expected Oscar contender, “La Bola Negra,” a queer drama from directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi that the mega-streamer acquired after its acclaimed premiere at Cannes earlier this year. The film will hit theaters on Oct. 16 ahead of its streaming debut on Netflix on Dec. 2, giving it a 47-day theatrical window that is the longest ever for a film from the streamer.
Box office grosses will also be reported for other films getting prominent releases, including David Fincher’s “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” starring Brad Pitt, which will get a two-week Imax-exclusive theatrical release at Thanksgiving, Greta Gerwig’s “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” in February 2027, and the animated feature “Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory” in November 2027.
It’s a major pivot for Netflix, which for years withheld official box office reports for the precious few movies for which they gave a substantial theatrical release such as Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” and Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion.” Netflix also did not report figures for its limited engagement release of its most watched film of all-time, “K-Pop Demon Hunters,” which theatrical sources told TheWrap earned $18 million over two days in August 2025 to give Netflix its first ever No. 1 on the box office charts.
That lack of reporting, combined with Netflix’s reluctance to commit to substantial windows, led to much disgruntlement among theater owners and rival studios alike. But this decision to join their studio peers in reporting numbers signals another step in the continued thawing of relations between Netflix and exhibitors.
This past April, Cinema United President/CEO Michael O’Leary said he had a positive meeting with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, a meeting that Sarandos had arranged when it looked like Netflix was set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery but which the exec maintained after Netflix pulled out following a higher bid from Paramount Skydance.
TheWrap also reported that Sarandos met with other major theater executives at the annual trade show, as Netflix has sought to rehabilitate relations with theater chains that have previously refused to screen its films due to insufficient window lengths.
Netflix now seems to be relenting on that front with films that it feels warrant a full theatrical release or, in the case of some filmmakers like Gerwig, are done as a condition required by the director. However, Netflix still isn’t jumping all the way into theatrical, as it is expected to only release a few films in theaters annually as opposed to the full slate of 15 films or more from other studios, including Amazon MGM, which will begin distributing its films internationally on its own next year.
The news was first reported by Variety.
