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Netflix's 'Cliff Booth' Fizzles in Theaters
Confirmed
In Short: Netflix's 'Cliff Booth,' directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, is not playing in IMAX theaters at Regal and Cinemark during its Thanksgiving release.
The movie's limited theatrical run contrasts with the success of the first 'Knives Out' film, which had a $41.4M 5-day opening and a final domestic gross of $165.3M.
Deadline reports that 'Cliff Booth' has a domestic take of just $4M, a stark difference from the $13.3M five-day opening of 'Glass Onion,' the sequel to 'Knives Out,' which had a 30-day window.
IndieWire notes that IMAX typically dictates which titles play on its screens, but in this case, IMAX allowed theater chains to opt out of 'Cliff Booth' to prioritize 'Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.'
Regal and Cinemark, with around 100 and 20 IMAX screens respectively, chose not to screen 'Cliff Booth,' opting instead to continue showing 'Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.'
Netflix's decision to give 'Cliff Booth' a shortened window in theaters, despite its star power and director pedigree, has puzzled industry insiders.
TheWrap reports that AMC, which is screening 'Cliff Booth' at around 200 locations, sees this as an opportunity to deepen its relationship with Netflix.
Netflix's reluctance to share box office numbers for 'Glass Onion' and the limited release of 'La Bola Negra' highlights the company's cautious approach to theatrical releases.
Variety notes that exhibitors would have had to give up some of their 'Hunger Games' IMAX screens for 'Cliff Booth,' which is set to stream on Netflix just a month later.
The decision by major theater chains to opt out of 'Cliff Booth' underscores the challenges Netflix faces in balancing theatrical and streaming releases.
AMC screened the series finale of “Stranger Things” at 231 of its locations on New Year’s Eve last winter; and this month, Netflix reported box office numbers for the first time ever with the limited release of the Cannes drama “La Bola Negra,” which AMC took part in. (The film, a three-hour historic gay epic, is expected to be a major contender this awards season.) Based on Suzanne Collins’ recently released novel of the same name, “Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” is the second prequel book in the hit YA novel series that still stands as Lionsgate’s most lucrative franchise.
What's confirmed
- The movie's limited theatrical run contrasts with the success of the first 'Knives Out' film, which had a $41.4M 5-day opening and a final domestic gross of $165.3M.
- Deadline reports that 'Cliff Booth' has a domestic take of just $4M, a stark difference from the $13.3M five-day opening of 'Glass Onion,' the sequel to 'Knives Out,' which had a 30-day window.
- Netflix's decision to give 'Cliff Booth' a shortened window in theaters, despite its star power and director pedigree, has puzzled industry insiders.
- TheWrap reports that AMC, which is screening 'Cliff Booth' at around 200 locations, sees this as an opportunity to deepen its relationship with Netflix.
- Netflix's reluctance to share box office numbers for 'Glass Onion' and the limited release of 'La Bola Negra' highlights the company's cautious approach to theatrical releases.
- Variety notes that exhibitors would have had to give up some of their 'Hunger Games' IMAX screens for 'Cliff Booth,' which is set to stream on Netflix just a month later.
- The decision by major theater chains to opt out of 'Cliff Booth' underscores the challenges Netflix faces in balancing theatrical and streaming releases.
- AMC screened the series finale of “Stranger Things” at 231 of its locations on New Year’s Eve last winter; and this month, Netflix reported box office numbers for the first time ever with the limited release of the Cannes drama “La Bola Negra,” which AMC took part in. (The film, a three-hour historic gay epic, is expected to be a major contender this awards season.) Based on Suzanne Collins’ recently released novel of the same name, “Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” is the second prequel book in the hit YA novel series that still stands as Lionsgate’s most lucrative franchise.
What's still developing
- Note before Johnson sold the Knives Out sequels to Netflix during Covid for $400M, the first movie, launched by Lionsgate was a great success over Thanksgiving 2019 with a $41.4M 5-day opening and final domestic of $165.3M domestically and global of $312.8M.
- The top three circuits balked at playing it and the movie fizzled with a $4M domestic take.
- Are people clamoring to pay 18+ per ticket and fees, which exceeds one month of Netflix?
- To that note, the mind boggles as to why Netflix would give a shortened window to the follow-up of Tarantino Oscar-winning blockbuster, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
- In a box office marketplace that’s booming, not to mention a Thanksgiving frame where there’s plenty of room, Netflix would have certainly been able to find screens and a long runway past Christmas for Cliff Booth.
- However, Netflix believes that only family films are the worthy titles for longer windows in cinemas.
- The original, which delivered Pitt a Supporting Actor Oscar win, bowed to the director’s highest stateside ($41M) and went on to make $142.5M domestic, and $409.3M WW.
- That movie opened in just 150 select theaters last weekend as part of a brief theatrical stunt, and it’s dropping on streaming even sooner; though it never reported box office data for it, the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy is intending to continue its run, though the major chains are now opting not to hold it.
- Netflix had originally slated Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia” movie there, but it moved into February so that it could have a longer run in theaters and a clearer window at IMAX screens.
- This isn’t even the only kerfuffle around screens and streamers that took place this week, as Puck, which originally reported the “Cliff Booth” news, added that Regal, Alamo Drafthouse, and also AMC are all among chains that are opting to not play Amazon’s “Ali G: Who Iz I?” as part of an “extended release” Amazon is planning for the film.
- One of its big upcoming releases, David Fincher’s “ The Further Mis-adventures of Cliff Booth ” starring Brad Pitt, won’t be playing at some major theater chains when it opens this Thanksgiving.
- Now set in 1977, the story finds Brad Pitt’s Oscar-winning stuntman working as a Los Angeles bartender and revival cinema projectionist who moonlights as an off-the-books “fixer” for Tinseltown’s elite.