Glass Onion Box Office Lands In Top 3 Even While In Fewer Theaters

Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion will likely land in the top 3 at the national box office this holiday weekend while premiering in under 1,000 theaters.

The upcoming sequel Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will likely debut near the top of the box office, despite a limited release window in fewer theaters. Rian Johnson’s 2019 feature Knives Out marked a return to form for the director in some audiences’ eyes after a hostile reaction to his Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The murder mystery film stars Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, a detective tasked with solving the apparent murder of a wealthy novelist. Knives Out was incredibly successful, prompting the production of a sequel exclusively for Netflix.

Before its highly-anticipated streaming premiere, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will finish out a limited theatrical release in the top three standings of the national box office. Deadline reports that the sequel should make about $14.5 million in its first and only week in theaters, which would beat all other adult options, including the Jonathan Majors-led Devotion, Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All, Steven Spielberg’s The Fablemans, and The Menu, according to expert predictions.

Related: When Glass Onion Releases On Netflix

What Netflix Could Learn From Glass Onion’s Box Office Performance

At first glance, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’s box office projections seem low for a sequel to a popular original product that made many critics’ top 10 lists in 2019 and has arguably become a modern classic. However, Netflix is only releasing the movie in 638 theaters nationwide compared to the projected No. 1 and No. 2 films, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Disney’s Strange World, respectively, which are in over 4,000 theaters. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’s projected revenue is just around $4 million shy of the new Disney animated adventure, making its performance even more impressive—though that may say more about Strange World’s visibility than the Knives Out sequel.

There are a couple of key takeaways from Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’s expected performance to consider. The first is that audiences are quantifiably excited about the film due to the positive perception of Johnson’s first film in the franchise, Knives Out, and the outstanding ensemble cast for the sequel. In addition, promotional materials, like the film’s trailer, promise a bigger and better murder mystery with similarly humorous and charming notes, qualities that made Knives Out successful. The second takeaway is that Netflix may have made a colossal mistake of not premiering Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in more theaters. Despite being the streamer’s widest theatrical release yet, a standard release could have netted over $50 million in ticket sales.

Unfortunately, audiences may never know how well Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery would have performed this weekend, since the studio does not divulge its financials. Still, the suspected numbers indicate that Netflix missed an enormous opportunity to release the Knives Out sequel in more theaters. Looking back at what could have been with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Netflix may opt for a more aggressive theatrical push for critical projects in the future, including the in-development Knives Out 3. Such campaigns will be imperative if Netflix acquires more alternative adult programming that can give the MCU and kids’ movies a run for their money.

Read Next: Is Glass Onion Better Than Knives Out?Source: Deadline