Netflix reports box office grosses for first time as La Bola Negra opens to $277,500

Netflix reported its first official box office grosses on October 18, saying Spanish drama La Bola Negra earned $277,500 across four theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The $69,375 average per theater gives the film a strong start as Netflix plans to expand its theatrical release before bringing it to streaming.

Variety said the per-screen figure is the second highest opening average for a non-English-language film, behind Parasite, which averaged $131,072 at three theaters in 2019. The comparison concerns a limited opening: La Bola Negra played at the Paris Theater and Angelika in New York and at AMC Century City and Burbank in Los Angeles, according to Deadline.

How Netflix plans to expand La Bola Negra

Variety reported that Netflix plans to keep the film in theaters for 45 days before a December 2 release on its streaming service. It described that as the company’s longest theatrical rollout to date. The planned window gives moviegoers more time to see the film in cinemas as Netflix begins making its ticket sales public.

The film behind Netflix’s first gross report

Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, the directing duo known as Los Javis, made the film, which follows the interconnected lives of three gay men across different eras. Deadline said it is based on an unfinished play by Federico García Lorca and is Spain’s entry for the best international feature Oscar. Those distinctions place the theatrical run alongside an awards campaign, with its expansion still to come.

The directors shared a best director prize at Cannes, and the film won the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award, Variety reported. Deadline also cited exit surveys in which 96% of respondents rated the film excellent or very good and 87% said they would definitely recommend it. Those responses describe surveyed opening audiences; Deadline did not give a sample size or survey method.