Netflix reported box office for the first time as it rolled out its heavyweight awards season contender La Bola Negra from Los Javis – and the Spanish Oscar submission delivered a mighty statement.
The epic gay saga has been scooping up audience awards at major festivals like Toronto, San Sebastian and Busan and earned an excellent $69,375 per-screen average across four Los Angeles and New York venues, translating to a $277,500 weekend.
Netflix said the per-screen average is the second-highest ever for a film not in the English-language, and the highest ever for a Spanish film. The opening weekend delivered the all-time highest gross by a film not in English at the Angelika NYC, The Paris Theater, and AMC Century City (excluding dubbed anime); and the second-highest opening weekend of all time at The Paris Theater, where Netflix has a 10-year lease.
After a turbulent week at the streamer following lay-offs and a senior executive shuffle, the box office offered some welcome good news.
Netflix paid for a traditional marketing campaign for La Bola Negra and billboards were hard to avoid in Los Angeles. By demographic, 51% of the crowd was under 35, while the 25-34 bracket was the largest at 39%. There was a 66%-34% male-female split, with 53% of audiences identifying as white, 37% as Latino/Hispanic, 10% as East Asian/Pacific Islander, and 4% Black/African-American.
La Bola Negra gets a 47-day exclusive theatrical release and expands this weekend into San Francisco, Toronto, Brooklyn and Landmark Sunset in Los Angeles; followed by 13 more markets and expanded runs in New York and Los Angeles on October 30; and wider expansion on November 6 with locations still to be confirmed. It drops on the platform on December 2.
Elements of the marketing campaign included a poetry salon hosted by John Cameron Mitchell modelled on the secret 1930s gatherings or “tertulias” of Federico García Lorca, the gay Spanish author whose unfinished play inspired the film; and community screenings with core audience groups.
La Bola Negra has been tearing up the box office in Spain and stars Carlos González and Guitarricadelafuente. The film premiered in Cannes where co-directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo shared the Cannes best director award with Pawel Pawlikowski for Fatherland.
Warner Bros Clockwork, now subsumed within David Ellison’s Skydance, released the 4K restored version of Ken Russell’s The Devils in 350 theatres. The banned 1971 drama stars Oliver Reed as a 17th century-priest who faces persecution arrived in twelfth place and earned an impressive $1.6m. Vanessa Redgrave also stars in the restored feature, which also premiered in Cannes.
Bleecker Street reported a $306,702 weekend for Alex Gibney’s Musk documentary, which stands at $394,912 after two sessions. This is notable box office, given that the company has been unable to advertise on Elon Musk’s X platform and TikTok, ostensibly due to concerns over political content. Los Angeles, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area are the lead markets and the Bay Area, housing Silicon Valley, has perhaps unsurprisingly posted the strongest per-screen average in the country.
Prathyangira Cinemas opened the historical saga Ranabaali on $718,597 from 375 sites at number 16. Rahul Sankrityan’s film stars Vijay Deverakonda, Rashmika Mandanna, and Arnold Vosloo from The Mummy in the story of a leader fighting oppression in 19th-century British India.
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