Don’t believe the hype that Netflix is embracing theatrical lock, stock and barrel.
Netflix co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, emphasized that “there’s no change in the strategy” when asked by an analyst on today’s earnings stream whether the OTT service was wading deeper into theatrical distribution. This comes in the wake of the streamer’s most viewed feature ever, Kpop Demon Hunters, racking up Netflix’s first No. 1 win at the box office back in August with a $19M 3-day weekend, in addition to that Sony anime pic’s re-release over Halloween weekend.
“Our strategy is to give our members exclusive first-run movies on Netflix,” said Sarandos.
In fact, he believes that the reason why Kpop Demon Hunters was a success at the box office is “because it was released on Netflix first.”
This despite Netflix’s heavy flirtation with theatrical: they’re doing another limited release of a Rian Johnson Knives Out movie over Thanksgiving with Wake Up Dead Man (the previous title in the franchise, Glass Onion, grossed $15M in a one week run over the November holiday at 696 theaters). There’s also an Imax release of Greta Gerwig’s Narnia movie next year.
What’s stoked the town’s excitement about Netflix possibly venturing further into theatrical distribution was the streamer’s recent deal to re-release Kpop Demon Hunters Sing Along at No. 1 circuit AMC Theatres. Quite often Netflix and AMC could never come to terms about windows nor terms (exhibit A being AMC’s refusal to book Martin Scorsese’s 3 hour and 29 minute Netflix mob movie, The Irishman.
Sarandos gave props to the “superfans” of Kpop Demon Hunters for making it a crossover hit. The movie wasn’t a success on day one or week one, rather, they “drove the recommendation engine.”
He added, “So that ease and value that allowed folks to repeat view it, the ubiquity of distribution, which took all the guess work of how to watch it when it showed up in your social media feed, all of this contributes to Demon Hunters blowing up all over the world, and I would argue in a way that it wouldn’t happen anywhere else. If anything, this actually reenforces our strategy, because being on Netflix actually allowed the film to build momentum.”