The special preview screening event of the final episode of the popular Netflix series, Stranger Things, has been declared an overall financial success for cinemas in the United States. It should be noted that instead of the typical box office buys, the audiences were involved in the purchase of food and beverage cards, in which all the earnings were retained by the cinemas, not Netflix.
As per a report from Market Watch, the largest cinema chain in the U.S., AMC, sold 753,000 vouchers for screening the episode to its viewers in 231 theaters. The voucher was sold for $20 and helped generate $15 million in revenue. Other cinema chains, like Regal, also sold the voucher for $11, referring to the main figure from the series ‘Eleven.’ The revenues generated from screening the episode in the 600 theaters of the U.S. were estimated to be $20-30 million.
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This comes as a turning point for the long-strained relationship between Netflix and movie theaters, and specifically for the exclusive window that precedes the availability of movies for online streaming. The exclusive window has considerably decreased over the years, from 90 days to only 45 days since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event was described as “an unprecedented cinematic event that was simply a complete success” by AMC CEO Adam Aron. In regard to their future endeavors with Netflix, he said that “Our company is excited about the opportunity to bring more Netflix content to moviegoers. The collaborative work between the two companies on the last two projects has been smooth, creative, and seamless.”
As reported by Deadline, the second half of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things has once again become the top show on Netflix with 34.5 million views in the week ending on December 22-28. It should be noted that this was made possible by the Christmas-themed episodes that were released.
