It looks as if both Netflix and Amazon are to move away from revealing their box office numbers.
Accepting that the world of streaming already has thrown a fair few spanners in the traditional workings of the movie business, both Netflix and Amazon are both now declining to play the box office game.
Two of the very biggest names in streaming have both independently confirmed that they won’t be publishing the box office numbers for the movies that they release into cinemas. In the case of Netflix, this isn’t a massive surprise, given that it’s paying the shortest shrift it can realistically get away with where cinema is concerned. The likes of The Irishman are heading to cinemas for long enough to appease awards votes.
In the case of Amazon, it’s been more aggressive in its theatrical plans, not least releasing the Emma Thompson-headlined Late Night earlier this year. But the box office returns have been poor, and thus Amazon has already revealed that it’s shortening its cinema release window to a matter of weeks.
The withdrawing of box office reporting goes against the usual game where headlines are made every Sunday as the weekend grosses come in. Amazon is set to give limited releases to The Aeronauts and The Report in the US shortly, and numbers for neither of those will be published. It’s not set to be a blanket policy, but will increasingly affect Amazon releases.
Expect that to change if The Report has, say, a $100m opening weekend mind…
Image: BigStock
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