Glass Onion Is Expected To Gross $15 Million In Its One-Week Theatrical Preview
Even after the major box office success of Rian Johnson's whodunnit "Knives Out," it was shocking to see Netflix dish out hundreds of millions of dollars to secure two additional sequels for their streaming platform. "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story," despite its relatively modest release, is proving that the murder mystery series is still a contender at the box office. As reported by Variety, "Glass Onion" is looking at approximately $15 million in ticket sales during its week-long theatrical run. Netflix doesn't share official box office numbers, but if Variety's sources are to be believed, "Glass Onion" definitely proves that moviegoers are clamoring for more Benoit Blanc mystery-solving.
According to informed estimates by Variety, over the Thanksgiving holiday "Glass Onion" earned over $13 million in 600 theaters, or an average of $19,000 per theater. The film will certainly bring in more as the days continue, and despite playing in six times less as many theaters, placed third behind "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" and Disney's "Strange World." The success of "Glass Onion" is unsurprising, and it's odd that Netflix hasn't already realized the potential to double-dip and make greater profits by allowing its exclusive releases a longer life in the theatrical market before pivoting to streaming.
"Glass Onion" is also the first Netflix film to play in America's three dominant theatrical chains — AMC Theaters, Cinemark, and Regal Cinemas. This is a huge change, as AMC and Regal have previously declined Netflix titles in response to their refusal to agree to a standard theatrical window. Yet, the power of Rian Johnson, Daniel Craig, and an undeniably phenomenal cast could not be denied, and the two made an exception for the film. (Besides, in the wake of the pandemic, theatrical release windows aren't what they once were.)
'A weird case from the start'
Again, only Netflix will know the exact box office numbers for certain, and some estimates from rival studios put its gross at a slightly lower $12 million for the five-day weekend. Regardless, this strong opening from a limited number of screens is strong evidence that the latest comedy-mystery from Rian Johnson had the potential to repeat the precedent started by "Knives Out." Of course, it could be argued that so many people saw "Glass Onion" out of the scarcity fears that it was only available for one week, but given how many people would have killed to see the film in a theater but were traveling for the holiday or were unable to see it for any number of reasons in the short timeframe (myself included), there was certainly more money to be made.
Rian Johnson is already keen to get started on "Knives Out 3," and perhaps the performance of "Glass Onion" will convince Netflix to finally allow a longer theatrical window before its films move to the streaming platform. It'll be interesting to see if Netflix announces a burst of new subscribers when "Glass Onion" hits the streaming service, and I suspect, could be the determining factor in how the company moves forward with future, high-profile anticipated releases.
"Glass Onion" won't be available on Netflix until December 23, 2022, but there are still a couple of days left to catch it in theaters.