Netflix Will Start Reporting Box Office Grosses as It Lean Harder Into Theatrical
Netflix will begin reporting box office grosses for its upcoming theatrical releases, according to an exclusive report from Variety published on 8 September 2026 — the first time the streamer has shared those numbers publicly.
The shift arrives as Netflix dramatically scales up its cinema presence. The company will release 13 films theatrically in 2026, up from just three in 2025, Variety reported in July. That build-out is not theoretical: it comes with dates, titles, and — now — grosses the company is willing to have measured against every other studio's.
The marquee test case is La Bola Negra, a generational queer drama starring Penélope Cruz and directed by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo. The film swept the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, won the jury prize for best director, and sold to Netflix for $5 million. Netflix will give it a 46-day theatrical run beginning 16 October 2026, before it lands on the streaming platform on 2 December — the longest theatrical rollout the company has given any film to date.
Two more titles have their own corridors mapped. Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew will receive a wide theatrical release, including Imax screens, for almost 50 days in 2027. Netflix's animated Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will play wide for 47 days over Christmas.
Co-CEO Ted Sarandos, speaking to Variety, said he could "see us doing things that we haven't done before" with movie theatres, while insisting the company remained streaming-first. He has been blunt about the competitive instinct: in January he told the trade he wanted to "win the box office" and promised a 45-day theatrical window for Warner Bros. films if that acquisition closed — a deal Netflix ultimately lost to David Ellison's Paramount.
Netflix had previously debated launching a standalone theatrical movie business before the Warner Bros. deal fell through, Variety reported in January. That internal conversation now appears to have an answer: build the slate, report the numbers, compete in the open.
The streamer has already tasted upside from limited cinema runs. The Stranger Things series finale earned between $25 million and $28 million in theatres, Variety reported in January. And KPop Demon Hunters, which Netflix called its most popular film ever, drew more than 1,300 sold-out sing-along screenings across the US and Canada, the company said in August 2025.
On the streaming side, Netflix's scale is already enormous. A 2026 Nielsen report found that streaming originals made up 12 of the top 20 most-watched general-audience films worldwide that year, up from seven the year before — including Netflix's The Rip and War Machine.
The wider exhibition market is rebounding but has not returned to pre-pandemic form. US and Canadian ticket sales totalled $4.6 billion from the first weekend of May through 30 August 2026, Reuters reported on 4 September. Attendance through July was up 8.1% on 2025 but still down 27% against 2019, according to Reuters. The full-year domestic box office — domestic meaning the United States and Canada — is projected to clear $9 billion, per a Deadline preview published last December.
For a company that once insisted the streaming premiere was the only premiere that mattered, the arc is striking. Netflix first experimented with limited theatrical runs back in 2018, releasing three original films in a small number of cinemas before they appeared online. Eight years later, the question is no longer whether Netflix films play in theatres, but how long they stay and how much they earn — and now the company is prepared to let everyone see the answer.
