Netflix revealed in a quarterly earnings report that they may be willing to give their original films limited theatrical runs, with David Ayer’s Bright being listed as one such feature considered for such a release.
Screen Rant reports that an official Netflix quarterly report emphasizes that the company is happy with the amount of viewers that their original content has attracted. Though having original movies are increasingly becoming a focus of the Netflix brand, the company appears to be open to the idea of giving some of them limited theatrical releases:
“Since our members are funding these films, they should be the first to see them. But we are also open to supporting the large theater chains, such as AMC and Regal in the US, if they want to offer our films, such as our upcoming Will Smith film Bright, in theatres simultaneous to Netflix. Let consumers choose.”
Netflix has actually tried this before with Beasts of No Nation, which bombed hard in theaters with a total gross of under $91 thousand, but was seen by well over 3 million subscribers, meaning that the subscription fees paid more than ensured that the $6 million-budgeted movie was a commercial success for them. Perhaps having stars like Will Smith or Matt Damon (who will star in War Machine) appear in these films will help draw Netflix couch potatoes into the movie theater – or, perhaps ideally, draw people who aren’t yet Netflix subscribers into theaters to get them interested in their original programming.
Bright will become available for Netflix subscribers in December of this year.
Source: Screen Rant
