Ahead of its December 23rd Netflix debut, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery was released in an exclusive fashion over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in select theaters. Aside from Marvel's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the cinematic slate for the holiday lacked the proverbial punch needed to galvanize audiences. The absence of engrossing offerings prompted theater owners to plead to the streamer to release the Knives Out sequel in more theaters and for a potentially more prolonged time.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery appeared in roughly 600 theaters across North America over the holiday weekend. Despite the limited release, the Netflix original film finished third in the domestic box office standings, accumulating $13.3 million. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever controlled the weekend, but not much else sparked enthusiasm in audiences. Newer offerings, such as Bones and All and The Fabelmans, failed to hit $4 million, while Disney's Strange World fell short of expectations.
As reported by Variety, cinema owners knew the cinematic slate for the holiday would not attract much attention, which prompted them to inquire about the Knives Out sequel. Despite pleas to see the project shown in more theaters for a longer theatrical run, Netflix refused to divert away from its limited-release strategy. The streamer believed the exclusive nature of the narrative would help to spark excitement before the highly-anticipated film officially arrives on the streaming platform in December.
A more significant theatrical release would have possibly given the Knives Out sequel an opportunity to dethrone Black Panther: Wakanda Forever at the domestic box office, but the film's limited availability seemed to serve its intended purpose. The original film currently has a 93% critic and audiences score on Rotten Tomatoes, showcasing the sequel has maintained the momentum established by its predecessor. It will be interesting to see how well the film performs once it is officially available, but theatrically the project had the potential to do incredibly well. Knives Out, which released in 2019, earned over $311 million worldwide. With fanfare present, the sequel had the potential to do even better, but the mystery will remain unsolved.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will see the return of Daniel Craig as the emblematic Benoit Blanc, alongside a new cast of characters that includes Janelle Monae, Edward Norton, Kathryn Hahn, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, and Leslie Odom Jr. The Knives Out sequel focuses on a tech billionaire who invites his friends to participate in a game to solve the mystery of his murder. When the threat of murder, however, becomes more than imaginative, Blanc is put on the case to solve the mystery in this highly-anticipated whodunit narrative.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will hit Netflix on December 23, 2022.
Source: Variety