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Netflix Gives “La Bola Negra” Its Longest Theatrical Window Yet

Netflix is giving awards contender “La Bola Negra” a 47-day exclusive theatrical window in North America, its longest to date, moving the film’s cinema opening forward three weeks to October 16 before it arrives on the streaming service December 2. The Spanish-language drama from Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, collectively known as Los Javis, was acquired by Netflix for the U.S. following its Cannes competition premiere, where the filmmakers shared the Best Director prize with Paweł Pawlikowski for “Fatherland.” Netflix has since acquired Canadian rights as well.

The window marks a significant step beyond Netflix’s previous prestige releases. “Marriage Story” received a 30-day window in 2019, while “The Irishman” had 27 days and “Roma” roughly three weeks. Netflix is becoming more ambitious theatrically elsewhere, too: David Fincher’s upcoming film has a two-week exclusive IMAX engagement planned, while Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” is scheduled for a conventional theatrical rollout next year with a 49-day window. “La Bola Negra” has plenty working in its favor as a theatrical proposition, including its Cannes pedigree, Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close in the ensemble, a Toronto Special Presentations slot and legitimate year-end awards prospects.

Rather than spend the next few months parsing whether Netflix has suddenly found theatrical religion, exhibitors might be better served racing to make this theatrical-first strategy work. Book it, market it and keep it playing for as long as audiences show up. Ideally, Netflix should resist reminding moviegoers every five minutes that they can simply wait until December 2. Let the theatrical campaign create awareness, cultural relevance and awards momentum, then put “La Bola Negra” front and center on Netflix over the holidays. If it ultimately becomes a streaming hit because it first became a theatrical success, Netflix may rediscover something it arguably benefited from all the way back in its DVD-by-mail days: movie theaters can be one hell of a marketing platform.

Source: Variety

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Kinepolis Bets on ‘Eatertainment’ With O’Learys Partnership in Enschede

Kinepolis is venturing further beyond popcorn and soda through a new partnership with Swedish restaurant and entertainment chain O’Learys, which will open a 2,500-square-meter venue connected to Kinepolis Enschede in the Netherlands this December. Kinepolis will operate the location itself as an O’Learys franchisee, combining restaurant dining, live sports, bowling, darts, billiards, karaoke and arcade games alongside the cinema. The location helps: Kinepolis Enschede sits next to De Grolsch Veste, home of FC Twente, giving the concept another sizeable audience even when nobody particularly feels like watching a movie.

For European exhibition, however, the more interesting part may be who is running the restaurant. Most European cinema operators have been considerably more cautious than their North American counterparts about expanded dining, where kitchens require space, capital, staffing and an entirely different operating skill set. Partnering with an established restaurateur gives Kinepolis a way to learn the business with somebody else’s playbook. O’Learys brings what it calls its “classic Boston-inspired menu” — though with tacos, fajitas, loaded nachos, jalapeño poppers and BBQ ribs appearing across its current menus, “American-inspired” might give Boston a little more room to breathe.

The strategy fits neatly with exhibition’s broader push to increase dwell time and capture more of a customer’s entertainment spending before and after the credits roll. It also comes as Kinepolis has been expanding aggressively in North America, completing its acquisition of Emagine Entertainment earlier this year and agreeing in June to acquire 13 Showcase Cinemas. Now it is experimenting at home with another concept North American exhibitors know well: if customers are going to have dinner, drinks and spend several hours around your cinema anyway, you might as well earn more of those euros yourself. And yes, the hospitality industry really does call this “eatertainment.” Sometimes the jargon actually describes the strategy rather well.

Source: Celluloid Junkie

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“Hadestown: The Musical” Heads Overseas After Record North American Run

Universal Pictures Content Group has acquired rights to “Hadestown: The Musical” from Bleecker Street for the United Kingdom and Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, and South Africa following the filmed stage production’s breakout theatrical performance in North America. Trafalgar Releasing has sublicensed theatrical rights and will release the film in cinemas across the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand beginning in October. The live capture, filmed in London’s West End with five members of the original Broadway cast, has grossed USD $20.3 million in North America through Sunday, according to Rentrak.

That haul has pushed “Hadestown” past “Hamilton” to become the highest-grossing live capture of a musical ever released theatrically in North America. The film features Reeve Carney, André De Shields, Amber Gray, Eva Noblezada and Patrick Page reprising their original Broadway roles in Anaïs Mitchell’s Tony-winning reinterpretation of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. The stage production won eight Tony Awards in 2019, including Best Musical, and remains in its seventh year on Broadway and third in London’s West End.

The international expansion is another reminder that filmed theatre can be considerably more than one-night alternative programming when audiences turn up. Universal Pictures Content Group already has some evidence of that in the UK and Ireland, where its 2025 release of “Six The Musical” grossed GBP £6.16 million (USD $8.32 million) to become the market’s highest-grossing theatre title. “Hadestown” has now demonstrated comparable appetite on the other side of the Atlantic, with its North American success effectively serving as the sales pitch for the next stage of its theatrical journey.

Source: Screen Daily

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PaperAirplane Elevates Amanda Rufener as Its Exhibitor Marketing Reach Expands

PaperAirplane Media has promoted Amanda Rufener to Senior Vice President, Exhibitor Marketing & Operations as the cinema marketing company continues expanding its relationships with studios and exhibitors. Rufener, who joined PaperAirplane in 2021 after 11 years in Lionsgate’s Exhibitor Marketing department, will lead the company’s account team and oversee partnerships with studios, exhibitors and marketplace partners, while continuing to oversee its creative asset team.

For exhibitors unfamiliar with PaperAirplane, Rufener’s promotion is a useful reason to get acquainted with the company’s growing role in theatrical marketing. Its THE HANGAR platform gives cinema marketers a centralized place to access studio-approved trailers, artwork and digital campaign materials rather than hunting through a thicket of distributor portals. PaperAirplane noted in a recent LinkedIn post that July marked the third consecutive billion-dollar month of the summer box office and that THE HANGAR surpassed 35,000 downloads during the month, with more than 765 exhibitors accessing marketing assets for more than 475 titles.

Rufener has helped build the machinery behind that growth. She was also the architect of The Tower, PaperAirplane’s group-sales platform designed to connect studios with exhibitors and streamline bulk-ticket campaigns, while her expanded role puts her increasingly close to the intersection where distributor marketing plans become exhibitor execution. That may sound like decidedly unglamorous plumbing, but anyone who has spent an afternoon searching for the correct trailer, key art or digital banner knows how quickly bad plumbing becomes everyone’s problem. As theatrical marketing becomes more fragmented across formats, platforms and territories, making that studio-to-exhibitor pipeline work more efficiently is becoming a larger part of the business than most moviegoers — and probably some people inside the industry — ever see.

Source: Celluloid Junkie

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Cineworld Veteran Shaun Jones To Depart After 25 Years

Shaun Jones will leave Cineworld on October 31 after 25 years with the exhibitor, ending a tenure that took him from opening the company’s first multiplex in North Wales to serving as Vice President of Operations UK and a Company Director. Jones joined Cineworld in 2001 as its first externally recruited General Manager before progressing through regional and senior operational roles and becoming Vice President in 2017. Along the way, his remit stretched well beyond keeping cinemas running, encompassing at various times marketing, commercial, B2B, retail, human resources, health and safety, and facilities management.

That breadth made Jones part of Cineworld’s institutional backbone through some decidedly non-routine operating conditions. He helped lead the UK estate through the pandemic and recovery, remained part of the leadership team through the group’s Chapter 11 restructuring, and for more than a decade built and delivered Cineworld’s annual company conference with his team. His influence also extends beyond Cineworld: Jones serves on the boards of the UK Cinema Association and Digital Cinema Media, is a BAFTA member and was among the inaugural recipients of the UNIC Gold Award in 2018 for his contribution to European cinema exhibition.

In announcing his departure on LinkedIn, Jones focused less on buildings and balance sheets than on the people required to make cinemas work, praising teams who care as much on what he called “a wet Wednesday in February” as they do on blockbuster opening night. Having known Shaun for years, we can also report that this commitment to guest experience apparently extends to politely laughing at this editor’s CineEurope dad jokes; or, when necessary, deploying an admirably quizzical eye-roll. Jones says he intends to continue leading consumer businesses where teams, standards and guest experience drive performance, whether in cinema or the wider leisure and hospitality world. As for leaving Cineworld, he supplied the appropriate cinema metaphor himself: “This isn’t the end credits, just the interval.”

Source: Celluloid Junkie

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