Netflix Officially Starts A New Era At The Box Office

Published Oct 19, 2026, 9:54 AM EDT

Brennan Klein (he/him) is a senior news writer at Screen Rant, host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast, and contributor at Alternate Ending and Horror Press. He has been writing and podcasting about pop culture (especially horror movies) for over a decade at platforms including Blumhouse, Fangoria, Dread Central, The Backlot, and Arrow in the Head.

La Bola Negra is kicking off an explosive new box office era for Netflix.

The Spanish movie (the title of which translates to The Black Ball in English) was directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi (known collectively as Los Javis) and follows LGBTQ+ characters during three different eras of history. 2026's La Bola Negra, which features an ensemble cast that includes Guitarricadelafuente, Lola Dueñas, Glenn Close, Julio Torres, and Penélope Cruz, debuted at the 79th Cannes Film Festival and won Best Director. Netflix won the fierce bidding war for distribution and debuted the movie in domestic theaters on October 16 ahead of its streaming debut on December 2.

Per Box Office Mojo, La Bola Negra earned a 3-day total of $277,500 at the domestic box office by the end of its opening weekend. During that time, it played in only four theaters, giving it a per-screen average of $69,375. This total, which marks the 91st highest debut per-screen average of all time, also gives the movie the fourth-best debut per-screen average for a 2026 movie so far and the third-best for a 2026 limited release.

Below, see a breakdown of the Top 5 highest debut per-screen averages for 2026 movies and where they rank on the all-time chart:

Rank	Title	Debut PSA
#27	The Moment	$106,990
#47	The History of Concrete	$90,892
#61	Spider-Man: Brand New Day	$80,252
#91	La Bola Negra	$69,375
#112	Pillion	$60,442

This is an auspicious record for Netflix, which is beginning a new theatrical approach with La Bola Negra. This is the case in multiple ways. First, the movie has been given their longest-ever exclusive theatrical window. While Netflix frequently plays movies such as Alfonso Cuarón's Roma or Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein in limited runs ahead of their streaming debuts in order to allow them to qualify for awards consideration, La Bola Negra's 47-day theatrical window marks their longest ever up to this point.

Additionally, this movie is the first where Netflix has officially reported box office grosses. While they have had theatrical successes in the past (including the sing-along version of their hit animated musical KPop Demon Hunters debuting at No. 1 and the Knives Out sequel Glass Onion earning a whopping $13 million in less than 700 theaters over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in 2022), they have never reported their own grosses like the major studios do.

IndieWire reports that they will use this approach going forward, reporting grosses for their upcoming theatrical slate, which is greatly expanding. This includes their first IMAX releases (David Fincher's The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth and Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew) alongside wider, more extensive theatrical releases for select upcoming streaming titles, including KPop Demon Hunters 2, The Mosquito Bowl, Ink, and Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory.

Rearrange the movies into the correct US release order.

La Bola Negra reviews, which have earned it a Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 87%, potentially helped propel this record-breaking debut. While Netflix (which has seen its stock price dropping, leading them to recently eliminate 6% of their workforce) has been pivoting in their approach to theatrical for some time, it was likely a strategic move to kick off this new era with the buzzy Spanish movie, which could ultimately prove to be a strong awards contender in addition to a box office success.

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