Wake Up, Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, the next installment in the Daniel Craig-led murder mystery film franchise, won’t be out for a few more months.
Nevertheless, Netflix has just confirmed it’ll be released in cinemas worldwide before the movie drops on the streaming giant – and that gives me hope that Netflix has finally learned a harsh lesson about releasing its films in theaters.
Confirmed today (September 2) alongside the release of a new poster (see above), Netflix announced Knives Out 3 will debut in select theaters on November 28. That’s two weeks before Wake Up, Dead Man lands on the streaming service on December 12, aka the film’s release date that was solved by Netflix detectives ahead of its official unveiling at Netflix Tudum 2025.
The third Knives Out movie’s theatrical release isn’t a new practice for Netflix. Indeed, other films produced by one of the world’s best streaming services have also been released in theaters albeit with caveats, such as limited theatrical runs and/or only airing in select cinemas.
Where Knives Out 3 differs from many of its peers, though, is the timing of its big-screen launch.
As I mentioned two paragraphs ago, it’ll come out 14 days before the whodunit arrives on Netflix. Why does that matter? For one, it gives us the opportunity to watch the Rian Johnson-directed flick on the biggest screen possible. More importantly, though, it means that, as long as Wake Up, Dead Man is actually good, it’ll be the topic of conversation among cinephiles heading into December. Anyone who can’t catch it at their local multiplex or independent cinema will not only be informed it’s worth seeing, but that it’ll also be available on Netflix immediately after its theatrical run has ended. Positive word of mouth and its imminent launch on Netflix means that it’ll be at the forefront of peoples’ minds when they’re deciding what to stream that weekend.
Knives Out 3‘s theatrical run being in close proximity to its streaming debut is a far cry from the experience of its predecessor, aka Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
The series’ second entry was only released in theaters for one week in November 2022. A whole month passed before it landed on Netflix, too, by which point it had faded into the background of our collective conscious. Sure, Glass Onion racked up nearly 209 million hours watched over the 2022 festive period on Netflix, but that’s 40 million hours short of Damsel, the Netflix Movie Original that currently occupies 10th spot on the streamer’s most popular films list (NB: we can’t compare total Netflix views between Glass Onion and Damsel, because this measurement wasn’t available in late 2022 when the former was released). That’s got to be a disappointing figure for all involved, especially with everyone having plenty of time on their hands over Christmas of that year.
I understand why Netflix hasn’t been hesitant to release its first-party films in theaters. Its streaming numbers – total views and hours streamed – are its bread and butter. So, while Netflix films can make extra money for the streaming titan on the big screen, it doesn’t want said theatrical releases to subtract from the metrics it so heavily relies on.
That said, Netflix has clearly made mistakes by not releasing some of its in-house flicks in theaters. Just look at Kpop Demon Hunters, this year’s cultural phenomenon that recently dethroned Red Notice to become the most-streamed Netflix film of all-time. Two months after it originally aired on Netflix, the streamer finally released a sing-a-long version in theaters – albeit for one weekend only – in late August. Despite racking up 300 million-plus views on the platform, it raked in over $18 million during its two days on the silver screen. How much more could Netflix have earned if it’d released it sooner in theaters and/or for a much longer period?
After that faux-pas, I hope Netflix might finally have learned to release the most anticipated new Netflix movies on the big screen. That won’t be the case for Guillermo del Toro’s retelling of Frankenstein – it’s coming out in cinemas three weeks before it lands on Netflix, which… isn’t great. Nonetheless, the fact that Knives Out 3 and Frankenstein‘s theatrical windows aren’t weeks ahead of their Netflix releases is a small yet significant step in the right direction – and one I hope will be built upon in 2026 and beyond.
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tom.power@futurenet.com (Tom Power)
