After Netflix promised a 45-day theatrical window if it had purchased Warner Bros, the streamer now will begin reporting grosses publicly for its upcoming slate of six movies: Cannes Palme d’Or winner La Bola Negra, David Fincher’s The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, Peter Berg’s Mosquito Bowl, Danny Boyle’s Ink, Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew and animated title Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
The change of heart, we’ve confirmed, comes from Netflix having two wide releases next year in Narnia and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Might as well get in the habit of reporting grosses. But really, what does this action mean? Netflix’s decision to lift the veil on box office is a way of ingratiating itself with exhibition and the motion picture talent community. By reporting grosses, it sends a sign to all that Netflix is ready to be serious about theatrical.
Up to this point, Netflix often has shielded its tickets sales from being shared in Rentak with other studios. The streamer did not officially report exactly what its first No. 1-ranking movie at the weekend office, August 2025’s K-Pop Demon Hunters Singalong grossed. Industry sources estimated that the massively watched Netflix pic posted a two-day box office of $19M; all circuits played it except AMC.
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Netflix often has had a contentious relationship with top exhibitors like AMC, given how the streamer has rarely wanted to abide by an exclusive theatrical window — read Netflix and top circuits never saw-eye-to-eye on a window for Martin Scorsese’s award-winning $250M The Irishman. Small exhibitors have savored their relationship with the streamer. Early on, Netflix would four-wall their titles with some theaters, which was a reliable revenue stream for struggling mom-and-pops.
While Netflix didn’t report box office on its limited Thanksgiving 2022 run of Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, sources told us that there were sold-out shows with an ultimate gross of $15M (which paled next the 2019 original Lionsgate movie’s full-bodied opening of $41.4M over the 5-day Turkey holiday and ultimate domestic gross of $165.3M). Netflix’s release of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery last November didn’t go well, grossing $4M, and that was because the top three chains –AMC, Regal and Cinemark — refused to take the movie on a 17-day window because they wanted 30 days.
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Toward the end of last year, Netflix and AMC began getting cozy. The exhibitor eventually decided to play K-Pop Demon Hunters over Halloween weekend, and the No. 1 chain and other circuits played the series finale of Netflix’s Stranger Things. While the streamer couldn’t charge for tickets on that series due to talent guild contracts, attendees reserved their seats by securing a concession voucher, with that experiment generating more than $25M in revenue for theaters.
Following Netflix losing the bid on Warner Bros, there’s been a divide internally on the approach to theatrical. At a March presser, Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria specified: “There is Warner Bros theatrical distribution, and then there’s Netflix, which we’ve been in a different business. I don’t want you to conflate the two. Ted [Sarandos] was talking about Warner Bros being in a different business than what Netflix is in.”
Netflix Film Chairman Dan Lin responded after Bajaria, “I would say give us some time.”
He added: “The Warner Bros deal just ended as far as our participations, and we had the Academy Awards. We are a streaming-first company. The strategy works really well for us. You can see our members watch seven movies a month. You can see through the Warner process, we built a closer relationship with theater owners, we had a lot of discussions — just give us some time.”
Still, by current motion picture standards, a near-30-to-46-day theatrical window to streaming is crushing it. Quite often the major studios have a 90-to-120-day theatrical window between a movie’s debut in cinemas and when it hits streaming, with a PVOD/digital release window in between.
Variety first had the story about Netflix reporting grosses.
Netflix’s upcoming theatrical release slate:
La Bola Negra: Theaters, October 16; streaming December 2
46-day theatrical window to streaming. The movie will receive a platform theatrical release.
Mosquito Bowl: theaters October 30, streaming November 25
26-day theatrical window. The film will play in select AMC theaters during its theatrical run, as well as additional theaters throughout the country.
The Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth: theaters, November 25, streaming December 23
27-day theatrical window. This will have a two-week run in Imax around the world (Narnia previously had this rollout plan).
Ink: Theaters December 11, streaming January 8 in U.S. and Latin America
27-day theatrical window.
Narnia: Magician’s Nephew: Theaters, Feb. 12, 2027; streaming April 2
50-day theatrical window
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Theaters Nov. 5, 2027; streaming Dec. 22
47-day theatrical window