I predicted this would happen. It’s obvious that, after Greta Gerwig seemingly convinced Netflix to release her “Narnia” theatrically, Daniel Craig and Rian Johnson are now pushing for ‘Knives Out 3’ to get the same treatment.
Craig is telling Variety that ‘Knives Out 3,’ set for release next fall, deserves a full theatrical release, and that he’ll be pushing hard for that to happen.
“You know I do,” Craig said when asked if he believes it should play in theaters for longer than one week. “Hopefully, Netflix will push it out a bit, and people will get to see it. The people I speak to — the fans, I suppose — all they want to do is take their families and go see it at the cinemas. That’s all they want to do. Hopefully we can give them that experience.”
There’s already been some past friction between the ‘Knives Out’ gang and Netflix. Puck’s Matt Belloni recently reported about a curse-filled exchange that occurred at the TIFF 2022 premiere of ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’ where Craig screamed at Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos about the film not getting properly released in theaters (“your model is f*cked!”).
Meanwhile, a recent Deadline piece had the ‘Knives Out’ duo of Craig and Johnson “not happy” with Netflix’s “business model.” According to sources familiar with the matter, the sequel could have ended up making well over half a billion dollars worldwide if it had been released in theaters for more than a week:
Most believe that with a P&A spend, that film could have grossed perhaps $600 million in global box office — enough to pay for that huge deal — before the film landed on Netflix.
Of course, Netflix has another opportunity to pivot next year with the third Knives Out installment — ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ — but Deadline’s sources believe the streamer will not budge for that one either. Netflix is again throwing easy money away, refusing to support chains and exhibitors, just because they have a “business model.”