Netflix Reports Box Office Numbers for the First Time as 'La Bola Negra' Opens

Netflix has published box office results for the first time in its history, reporting that "La Bola Negra" earned $277,500 from just four venues in New York and Los Angeles. That works out to a per-screen average of $69,375 — a strong start for a sprawling historical epic that awards watchers view as a major Oscar contender.

The number itself matters less than the disclosure. For years Netflix has released films in theaters for a few weeks purely to qualify for the Oscars, while refusing to say what those films actually earned. The streamer briefly pulled back the curtain on "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery," but never officially. Now it plans to report grosses like every other studio.

Why is Netflix suddenly publishing numbers?

The shift comes with a slate of prestige titles headed to theaters, each with a traditional theatrical window (the exclusive period a film plays in cinemas before streaming) of 45 days or more. That group includes:

• David Fincher's "The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth"
• Greta Gerwig's "Narnia: The Magician's Nephew"
• Taika Waititi's animated "Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory"
• Peter Berg's "The Mosquito Bowl"
• Danny Boyle's "Ink"

Longer windows mean more screens, and more screens mean grosses worth reporting. The precedent cuts both ways, though. Apple found reporting box office was pleasant when it had "F1" — and considerably less so with "Fly Me to the Moon" and "Argylle."

What does this change for Netflix?

The timing is uncomfortable. Netflix's stock is in a rut, and the company has just pink-slipped 1,000 employees while ousting Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria in favor of Peter Rice, a Fox and Disney veteran. Transparency gives the company a potential new revenue story — or hands Wall Street another metric to pummel co-CEO Ted Sarandos with whenever the numbers disappoint.

There's also the awards angle. Netflix picked up "La Bola Negra" at Cannes for around $5 million, and awards voters seem to be embracing it. The film has a genuine chance to beat "The Odyssey" and hand Netflix the Best Picture Oscar it has long coveted. That kind of validation could be worth far more to the company than whatever the epic earns at the box office.

So the real test isn't this weekend's $277,500 — it's whether Netflix can keep reporting numbers cheerfully when a 45-day window produces a flop.