In a significant change of strategy, Netflix is to release its awards-hopeful films in cinemas before launching them on its streaming service.
According to Deadline, over the next two months Netflix is planning to release Roma, Alfonso Cuarón’s Mexico-set family drama, the Coen brothers’ western The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and Bird Box, the Sandra Bullock-starring horror directed by Susanne Bier. Roma is generating especially strong Oscar buzz after winning the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival, and Netflix appears to have accepted that not giving it a run in cinemas will harm its chances with Academy voters.
Netflix has previously resisted premiering its films in cinemas, preferring to release them either simultaneously in theatres and online, or dispensing with big-screen release altogether. Putatively commercial projects, such as its Adam Sandler series, the Brad Pitt starring war film War Machine and the Will Smith crime drama Bright, have not appeared in cinemas at all, while more “niche” films – such as the Bong Joon-ho directed eco fable Okja, and the Dee Rees race drama Mudbound – were given short cinema releases alongside their streaming debuts, in part to ensure qualification for awards.
However, Netflix’s release policy has meant its films were excluded from this year’s Cannes film festival as they were not guaranteed a theatrical release in French cinemas, and it has failed to gain berths in major US cinema chains for not adhering to the customary window between theatrical and home entertainment releases.
The Paul Greengrass-directed film 22 July, about the 2011 Utøya island massacre, appears to have done well using the simultaneous release model; Netflix does not declare viewing figures but Deadline reports a source claiming that it has been watched on 14.5m subscriber accounts so far (with 92% watching to the end). Outlaw King, the Robert the Bruce biopic directed by David Mackenzie, is likewise an awards contender and will be released in a similar manner.
Netflix will give Roma a three-week cinema run (beginning in the US on 21 November) before it starts streaming on 14 December. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs will be given less time – a week – between its theatrical release in the UK and US on 8 November and its online premiere on 16 November – as will Bird Box, which goes into theatres on 13 December before going online on 21 December.
