Netflix publicly reported box office results for the first time in its history this weekend as it released its queer drama “La Bola Negra” in U.S. theaters.
The Spanish-language film opened in limited release — just four theaters in Los Angeles and New York — and brought in $277,500 on a reported production budget of $15 million to $17 million. That averaged out to about $69,375 per screen, the second-highest per-screen average for a non-English language film.
Netflix acquired the U.S. rights to the film at Cannes, reportedly for about $5 million.
The Los Gatos-based streaming giant plans to expand the number of locations in the coming weeks to as many as 300 theaters across the country. The film already opened in Spain in late September.
“La Bola Negra” will be available on Netflix on Dec. 2.
Netflix has high hopes for the film, which won six audience awards on the festival circuit and will be Spain’s entry for the Academy Awards.
But the U.S. debut comes at a rocky time for Netflix, which cut 6% of its workforce, or about 1,000 jobs, last week. The layoffs, which are believed to be the largest in company history, included Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria, who was replaced by former Disney executive Peter Rice.
The move arrives as Netflix’s stock price has tumbled, and the company is under pressure from shareholders to churn out more hit films and TV shows, while increasing engagement on the platform.
Elsewhere at the box office, Paramount Pictures’ video game adaptation “Street Fighter” took the top spot, with a domestic haul of $31 million. It is the first major release from Skydance, the company formed when Paramount completed its $111-billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this month.
A24’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary, “You Can See Everything,” which opened on only 855 screens, made about $15 million, while Universal Pictures’ “Other Mommy” ($8.3 million), Disney-owned 20th Century Studios’ “Whalefall” ($8 million) and Universal-owned Focus Features’ “Sense and Sensibility” ($7.2 million) rounded out the top five.
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