Netflix is giving "La Bola Negra" the longest theatrical rollout of any film in the company's history. The generational queer drama, starring Penélope Cruz, opens in theaters Oct. 16 for a 46-day run before arriving on the Netflix platform Dec. 2.
The film has been on a hot streak since May, when it swept the Cannes Film Festival, landing a $5 million sale to Netflix and earning directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo the jury prize for best director. It played to acclaim at last weekend's Telluride Film Festival and is now headed to Toronto for another premiere.
A Bigger Theatrical Bet
The extended run for "La Bola Negra" is part of a pattern that has industry insiders talking. In 2027, Greta Gerwig's "Narnia: The Magician's Nephew" will get a wide release, including Imax screens, for nearly 50 days, while Netflix's animated "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" will play wide for 47 days over the Christmas season. Netflix has also told two company insiders it will report box office grosses — something it has never done before — for six upcoming films: "Narnia," "Charlie," "La Bola Negra," David Fincher's "The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth," "The Mosquito Bowl" and "Ink."
"The real question is 'What does Netflix want to be now?'" said one high-level executive at a legacy film studio. "Having almost bought Warner Bros. Discovery, you get the sense that they can't put some of that toothpaste back in the tube." That reference is to Netflix's attempt to acquire Warner Bros. and HBO, a deal that fell through after David Ellison's Paramount made a larger offer.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said he could "see us doing things that we haven't done before" regarding movie theaters, while maintaining the company remains streaming-first. Sarandos has previously dismissed a robust theatrical window as an "outdated concept." A 2026 Nielsen report found that streaming originals made up 12 of the top 20 most-watched general audience movies worldwide this year, up from seven last year, including Netflix's "The Rip," starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and "War Machine."
Cinema owners have long clashed with Netflix over its refusal to grant a standard exclusivity window — the current industry norm is 45 days before a film moves to other platforms — a tension worsened by COVID-19 theater shutdowns. "The exhibitors would absolutely welcome this. Imagine if Netflix of all places threw its weight behind a real theatrical marketing campaign, and not some awards play," said one veteran film distributor.
Netflix has previously spent big on eventizing releases without full theatrical runs, including the $450 million paid in 2021 for two sequels to Rian Johnson's "Knives Out," which came with tens of millions in marketing spending. Observers made a similar critique in 2024 about "Carry-On," the Jason Bateman thriller that became the third-most-watched film ever on the service, arguing Netflix left money on the table by skipping cinemas.
Spencer Klein, who has led Netflix's theatrical distribution since 2019 after working at 20th Century Fox on franchises like "Deadpool" and "Planet of the Apes," oversees release dates and Netflix-owned theaters in New York and Los Angeles. He guided the company to its first No. 1 box office weekend in August 2025 with a sing-along release of "KPop Demon Hunters." Sources inside Netflix, however, are downplaying the shift, describing the expanded theatrical runs as case-by-case decisions about "what's right" for each film.
Photo: S Pakhrin from DC, USA, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
