Sources are telling us this morning that the Stranger Things finale cleared well north of $25M, possibly even $30M, in concession cash to movie theaters over its New Year’s Eve and New Years Day play.
Exhibition couldn’t charge for tickets to The Netflix event given the cast’s contractual terms for residuals, hence the streamer and circuits got around this by reserving seats with concession vouchers. At AMC theaters, such concession vouchers cost $20 per seat.
Strangers Things finale played in over 620 locations, and the series creators, the Duffer Brothers, announced two days before the finale played theaters that 1.1 million seats were sold, a number that was ahead of KPop Demon Hunters RSVPs (700M) before it’s late August two-day play. Note, AMC, the no. 1 circuit didn’t play KPop during that run, which yielded exhibitors $19M, and delivered Netflix its first No. 1 ranking title at the weekend box office. You could say that Stranger Things finale is their new No. 1 ranking title at the B.O. (though not on a weekend) — but it’s not box office, it’s concession cash which the movies theaters get to keep, and don’t have co-share ala a regular studio film rental. That’s a sweet late Christmas gift from Netflix, the pending owner of Warner Bros.
Exhibition wants Netflix to commit to theatrical runs more, and the streamer will have contractual obligations to filmmakers once they complete their acquisition of Warner Bros. Stranger Things finale is something of an olive branch to exhibition, and a means for Netflix to experiment and dip their toes into the theatrical business. Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos has waffled in his messaging on theatrical telling analysts on an earnings call post the success of KPop that Netflix prioritizes their first run movies for the service. Post Netflix firming up its bid for Warner Bros, Sarandos has changed his tune, telling the media, ““There’s been a lot of talk about theatrical distribution, so we want to set the record straight: we are 100% committed to releasing Warner Bros. films in theaters with industry-standard windows.” The town continues to worry what “traditional” means for Netflix. Sources have told Deadline that Netflix have been proponents of a 17-day window which would steamroll the theatrical business, while circuits such as AMC believe the line needs to be held around 45 days.
The Stranger Things finale began its play in theaters at 5PM EST on New Year’s Eve and continued throughout yesterday.
Netflix doesn’t report box office grosses, or for that matter, theater chains’ concession revenue.
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