Two interesting things happened at this weekend’s box office: A documentary sold out theaters across the country, and Netflix reported box office numbers for the first time.
Yet neither of those movies topped the charts.
That prize went to Paramount’s “Street Fighter,” an action film based on a video game that is estimated to bring in $31 million for the weekend.
Still, it is Nathan Fielder’s confounding documentary on Elizabeth Holmes, “You Can See Everything,” that has captured the cultural zeitgeist. Released on 855 screens, with over 2,000 sold-out shows, the nearly three-hour documentary follows Ms. Holmes, both a month before entering federal prison for crimes related to her medical technology company, Theranos, and two years into her sentence. It grossed an estimated $15 million from Friday through Sunday, making it one of the largest openings this century for a movie debuting on less than 1,000 screens. It will expand to wide release next weekend.
Co-directed by Lance Oppenheim (“Primetime”), it’s the highest grossing nonmusical documentary to hit the big screen since Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” from 2004. Reviews have been rapturous, with critics calling it “unmissable” and “off the charts bonkers.” Prognosticators are already imagining a world where it lands a best-picture nomination, which would be a first for a documentary.
On a much smaller, but no less significant, scale, Netflix began its 45-day theatrical release for the Spanish-language film “La Bola Negra,” which it acquired at the Cannes Film Festival. Debuting on four screens in New York and Los Angeles, the film is getting the streaming giant’s longest ever exclusive theatrical release. And it marks the first time a Netflix movie will be subject to the scrutiny that comes with box office reporting.
For the weekend, it grossed an estimated $277,500, with a per-screen average of $69,375, the second-highest per-screen average for a non-English language film. Directed by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo (known colloquially as “Los Javis”), the well-reviewed, two-hour-35-minute multigenerational Spanish epic centered on the lives of gay men nabbed the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival. It may also be Netflix’s strongest Oscar contender in years.
In comparison, “Fjord,” Neon’s international film from Romania — and one of “La Bola Negra’s” biggest competitors for recognition in the awards race for Best International Film — opened last weekend on four screens to $124,000.
Netflix intends to expand the screening of “La Bola Negra” to additional cities in the next few weekends before going to up to 300 screens on Nov. 6. It will debut on Netflix on Dec. 2.
The film is the first of a few Netflix films that are getting an exclusive theatrical release ahead of debuts on the streaming service. On Nov. 25, “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth,” a prequel of sorts to “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” with a script from Quentin Tarantino and directed by David Fincher, will debut on IMAX screens for a two-week exclusive run. The studio will give Greta Gerwig’s Narnia adventure, “The Magician’s Nephew” a wide theatrical release in early February before it goes to Netflix on April 2.
Netflix has been clear that it’s a streaming company first and is interested in giving theatrical releases only to films that can play in theaters without hurting their performances on the service. (Many industry watchers believe that movies that open in theaters first perform better on streaming services.)
To the Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos, the two types of movies he’s willing take a chance on are art house films and family films, which he says do a lot of repeat business. “So we said let’s take those two and treat them different,” he said last month at the Bloomberg Screentime conference. “We have relatively low expectations that will add much to the financial outcome of the film itself.”
But theater owners, who have long wanted Netflix to put its movies in theaters as the major studios do, are cautiously optimistic.
“I think it’s great that they’re finally joining us on how the industry is run in the U.S.,” said Luis Olloqui, chief executive Cinépolis USA, a luxury theater chain. His company won’t be screening “La Bola Negra” or “Cliff Booth.” It would rather turn its two IMAX screens over to the “Hunger Games” movie coming in November. His company is still deciding whether to screen the Peter Berg war film “Mosquito Bowl.” Netflix is giving the film an exclusive theatrical release later this year, though one with a shorter window than the others.
But it’s Ms. Gerwig’s epic “Narnia” movie in February that Mr. Olloqui says the entire exhibition community is excited about since it’s a big exclusive wide release for a movie that has the potential to be a blockbuster.
“We’re all looking forward to it,” he said. “It’s very good for the movie, for the whole industry and for the clients to have it on the big screen, as it should be seen.”
Other films released this weekend included “Whalefall,” an action film from Disney’s Fox division about a scuba diver being swallowed by a sperm whale. Made for $60 million, the movie opened to an estimated $7.5 million and will struggle to earn its production costs back. A remake of “Sense and Sensibility” from Focus Features opened to $6.7 million. The film, which has already grossed $8 million overseas, scored well with both critics and audiences.
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