The Knives Out Sequel, Glass Onion, is a Hit—Now It’s Disappearing

It’s a Knives Out mystery. This Wednesday—when Glass Onion will have made something like $15 million on less than 700 screens—Netflix will pull it from theaters. Some analysts believe the streamer has committed Hollywood’s ultimate sin: leaving money on the table. But streamers, after all, are in the business of streaming. 

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is the first Netflix movie to play at all three of the country’s biggest theater chains: AMC, Regal, and Cinemark. It will be available on Netflix itself on Dec. 23. The streamer isn’t reporting box office numbers, but according to a person familiar with the movie’s theatrical release, it earned more than $13 million during the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. That’s a strong showing that would put it behind only Disney’s sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and its animated movie Strange World. But what might have been valedictory headlines have been tempered by the fact that the movie will now go into hibernation for nearly a month. 

The simple truth is that for Netflix the streaming viewership for Glass Onion could ultimately have more long-term value than box office returns. The company, which had been searching for a franchisable movie property, paid $450 million in 2021 to acquire the rights to two Knives Out sequels, according to Variety. The first film, a sly, spiky murder mystery starring Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans and Jamie Lee Curtis, was a holiday season hit, grossing nearly $313 million worldwide as families came out to the theaters. Writer-director Rian Johnson made the deal with Netflix in the middle of the pandemic when the future of moviegoing was uncertain. 

This year, key execs at the streamer reportedly pushed Ted Sarandos for a broad theatrical presence for the company’s movies because, even leaving box office aside, it’s still the noisiest way to launch a movie. (Netflix has given limited theatrical releases to films in the past, particularly awards contenders that have to meet requirements for Oscar eligibility.) Sarandos held firm on prioritizing subscribers rather than ticket buyers, but agreed to put Glass Onion in theaters for one week in what Netflix described as a “special sneak preview event” to build buzz. 

Glass Onion finds Craig’s eccentric detective, Benoit Blanc, unraveling a murder on a narcissistic tech billionaire’s comically over-the-top home on a Greek island. The movie, which also stars Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson, Edward Norton, and others, has a 93% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and, according to GoldDerby.com, it’s the streaming industry’s best shot at a best picture Oscar nomination. The demand for tickets this past weekend was strong. The movie averaged $19,000 per screen, the source said. On Friday, AMC CEO Adam Aron tweeted that it was the top movie at the chain. Now, anyone frustrated that the movie is disappearing from theaters, will have to subscribe to Netflix if they don’t already—which was the whole point in the first place. Once they’ve watched Glass Onion, maybe The Crown or Lindsay Lohan will convince them to stick around.