Netflix (NFLX) Glass Onion Sails in Thanksgiving Theatrical Run
Netflix’s NFLX limited domestic release of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in roughly 600 theaters over the weekend ended up making a quite huge splash at the box office.
The one-week sneak preview of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery recorded an estimated $13.3 million over the five-day Thanksgiving stretch and is projected to touch $15 million in its first week by Tuesday. Its predecessor, 2019’s Knives Out grossed $26 million in the same time frame but was released in 3,461 theaters.
The first movie was released by Lions Gate (LGF.A). Netflix purchased the rights to two sequels for nearly $450 million, which was among the biggest payouts by a streaming service for distribution rights.
Glass Onion sees the likes of Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn and Kate Hudson join the murder mystery fun alongside Daniel Craig. The film is the first Netflix film to play in the country’s three biggest film chains, AMC Theaters, Regal Cinemas and Cinemark. However, Glass Onion will go dark, out of theaters, until Dec 23, when it debuts on Netflix.
Netflix, Inc. Price and Consensus
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Netflix Resists Wider Theatrical Release
This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company has so far resisted the plunge into the theatrical business on a large scale. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Limited releases aren't new for Netflix, as it did the same thing with its most recent limited one-week release, Red Notice, starring Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Godot, despite the consensus that the streaming giant is leaving money on the table.
Netflix has resisted showing its films broadly in cineplexes for years, and on the rare occasion that it did, it usually did the bare minimum needed to qualify for award competitions, such as the Oscars, which requires that a movie have at least three paid, daily showings for seven consecutive days in at least one of six major metropolitan areas.
For the fourth quarter 2022, total revenues are anticipated to be $7.776 billion, suggesting growth of 0.9% year over year. Netflix expects to end the fourth quarter of 2022 with 227.59 million paid subscribers globally, indicating growth of 2.6% from the year-ago quarter.
Others Falter in Thanksgiving Weekend
A slew of other new films is also competing for their place at the Thanksgiving table but many are failing to appeal to mainstream audiences, including Disney DIS Animation’s Strange World.
Strange World is looking at a five-day opening of $19 million, Disney Animation’s worst opening for a Thanksgiving title in modern times. (Disney Animation titles, such as the Frozen franchise, usually dominate the holiday.)
Meanwhile, Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will stay atop the box office chart for the third weekend in a row with a hearty gross of $60 million to $67 million for the five days (Wednesday through Sunday).
On Wednesday, Sony’s SONY Korean War drama Devotion, about two naval fighter pilots, grossed $1.8 million from 3,228 sites for a projected five-day gross in the $9.2 million range. The film grossed another $1.2 million on Thursday and $2.4 million on Friday. It stars Top Gun: Maverick’s Glen Powell and Jonathan Majors.
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