Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery has received excellent reviews and delivered a very sturdy box office despite only being given a limited theatrical release. Having now debuted on Netflix on December 23, the film logged 82.1 million hours viewed in its first three days on release. This equated to an estimated audience of 35 million subscribers, and was enough to push the Daniel Craig-led sequel to the top of Netflix’s chart. However, in the grander scheme of things, this put the film in 6th place on the list of top-performing movie debuts behind The Unforgivable, but ahead of movies like The Irishman.
The timing of Glass Onion’s release could have both aided and hindered the movie’s initial impact, arriving as a Christmas premiere when many potential viewers were at home and able to tune in but possibly choosing to view a more festive or family-orientated movie instead. In the coming weeks, it is likely that Glass Onion will really deliver to its full potential, especially with plenty of positive reviews flooding in.
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Glass Onion impressed with its theatrical run in November, delivered an estimated $15 million during its first week, although those figures have not been confirmed thanks to Netflix not releasing official figures for their limited cinematic releases. With Knives Out 3 already being planned by Rian Johnson, and Netflix having invested over $450 million for the rights to two Knives Out sequels, there will be a lot of focus on how the movie performs over the coming weeks that could impact where the franchise goes beyond its next movie.
Rian Johnson Shared His Annoyance At Glass Onion’s Subtitle
Netflix
While there are many franchises that like to connect the titles of their movies, Rian Johnson really did not want Glass Onion to be called “A Knives Out Mystery.” He previously commented:
In other interviews, Johnson and Craig have discussed the possibility of the character of Benoit Blanc having a very long franchise ahead of him. Citing the likes of Agatha Christie’s various novels featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple as inspiration, Johnson said that his intention has always been to have individual cases that audiences don’t need to have prior knowledge of to enjoy.
“I’ve tried hard to make them self-contained. Honestly, I’m p*ssed off that we have A Knives Out Mystery in the title. You know? I want it to just be called Glass Onion. I get it, and I want everyone who liked the first movie to know this is next in the series, but also, the whole appeal to me is it’s a new novel off the shelf every time. But there’s a gravity of a thousand suns toward serialized storytelling.”
Having the subtitle has not hindered the performance of the movie, and it is clear to see from a marketing point of view why Netflix wanted the title to be expanded, as they have bought into the Knives Out franchise and want that to be apparent immediately. Whether Johnson will get to drop the name in future installments is yet to be seen, but after Glass Onion there are many fans who will be eagerly awaiting it in the coming years.
