Netflix publishes La bola negra US box office: 277,500 dollars from four cinemas

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In brief

How it came to this

6 NovWide release in 116 cinemas
23 NovStaggered rollout scheduled to end
2 DecFilm available on Netflix

Opening weekend in the United States

Netflix's film La bola negra, directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, known as the Javis, took 277,500 dollars over its opening weekend in four cinemas in Los Angeles and New York. The per-screen average was about 69,375 dollars, a figure one report rounds to 70,000 dollars, and it was the best of the weekend. Analyst Pau Brunet noted on X that this is the second-highest per-screen average for a non-English film, behind Parasite, the Bong Joon-ho film that later won the best picture and best international feature Oscars. Parasite earned 131,000 dollars in each of its three theaters in 2019. Netflix has officially published theatrical takings for one of its films for the first time.

The disclosure reverses an earlier stance. When La sociedad de la nieve opened in 2024, the platform was criticized for refusing to report takings and for barring cinemas from sharing such data. Some analysts, Brunet among them, suggested Netflix feared how the figures might be read against the film's success story. A similar situation arose with Roma in 2018.

Rollout and Netflix window

The planned North American release runs in stages from 16 October to 23 November, covering 157 screens: 149 in the United States, six in Canada and two in Puerto Rico. On 6 November the film opens in 116 cinemas, reaching cities from Philadelphia to Seattle, including Buffalo, Kansas City, Portland and Las Vegas, and two theaters in San Juan open the same day. Its theatrical window is about 47 days before it arrives on Netflix on 2 December, a short gap of the kind cinema owners have long complained about. One report expects the run to widen to around 300 screens nationwide. According to figures cited by the Los Angeles Times, Netflix acquired the US distribution rights at the Cannes festival for about five million dollars.

Box office in Spain

In Spain the film had passed 28.6 million euros and was expected to reach 30 million euros on Monday, 19 October, with more than four million admissions. It has overtaken Torrente, presidente, Santiago Segura's film that had been the year's best opening until then, and is now the most successful Spanish film of the year. It still trails Spider-Man: Brand new day, at 39 million euros, and La odisea, at 38 million. Ranked by all-time Spanish takings, it stands fourth, behind Ocho apellidos vascos (55,380,420 euros), Lo imposible (42,415,931 euros) and Ocho apellidos catalanes (35,481,520 euros). The cheap-ticket cinema week, running Monday to Thursday, is expected to lift attendance more than the total takings.

Leading 2026 box office titles in Spainmillion euros

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Awards push and the film

Spain has put the film forward as its candidate for the Oscar for best international feature. It won awards at Cannes and at the Toronto film festival, and in early October the Critics Choice Association gave the Javis the best director prize, the first US recognition for the film. The story follows three gay men in 1932, 1937 and 2017, with intertwined storylines shaped by Federico García Lorca, and draws on the four pages that survive from his unfinished work. At the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles, the filmmakers and part of the cast crossed paths with Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian. The film reaches Netflix on 2 December.