When Hamish Moseley, former managing director at the UK’s Altitude Film Distribution, moved to Netflix in 2021 under the title of ‘director of distribution for Netflix EMEA’, the hope among the UK industry was not just that the US streamer would release more of its films into UK and Irish cinemas, but it would be a little more forthcoming about its cinema release strategy for the territory, one of the biggest in the world.
Alas, no. While he was open and available during his time at Altitude, Moseley does not do interviews nor speak at industry events on Netflix’s theatrical strategy, which seems broadly to release select films, mainly during awards season, for no more than a two-week window in cinemas. The streamer books through Altitude but oversees everything. It declines to reveal any box-office numbers.
“My initial thought, when Hamish went to Netflix, was they are going to do it [theatrical distribution] themselves — but it’s not been the case,” says one leading UK distributor. “With it being such a US-based team, they needed someone in Europe to be across that detail. I don’t think there are any plans for it to be further into the organisation, because they’re not in the business of having that skillset.”
As Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said in April: “Driving folks to a theatre is just not our business.”
Using a local indie distributor as a quiet partner is not unique — Sky Cinema has a similar deal with Altitude, and UK documentary specialist Dogwoof has long been handling National Geographic’s UK/Ireland cinema releases. What is new is the information void that now exists around the streamers. Almost everyone contacted for this story declined Screen International’s request for comment. Such polite refusals to engage with questions about strategy has created a situation so opaque that attempts to understand just how Netflix, Amazon Studios, Apple and indie US distributors such as A24 run their distribution interests in what is one of the global industry’s biggest box-office markets has many in the UK scratching their heads.
Direct distribution
But the picture is gradually becoming clearer. New York and Los Angeles-based A24, which operates as a producer, sales agent and distributor, sells some films like a traditional agent — The Eternal Daughter sold to BFI Distribution in the UK; Pearl was scooped up by Universal Pictures Content Group internationally; Beau Is Afraid via Sony Pictures; and Studiocanal will release Sundance and Berlin favourite Past Lives. But, Screenunderstands, when it does not achieve the price it wants, A24 directly distributes its titles in the UK and Ireland. It has done this for multiple Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All At Once, which has taken $7.8m (£6.2m) in the UK and Ireland, and The Whale, for which Brendan Fraser won the best actor Oscar, grossing $3.8m (£3m).
A24 does this from a US base, without an on-the-ground UK partner to wrangle bookings or marketing. Heath Shapiro is head of theatrical distribution and leads a team out of New York, with director of theatrical sales Sean McDonnell handling bookings from Los Angeles. Although there is an A24 London office, comprising fewer than five people including former BBC executives Rose Garnett and Piers Wenger, the company has no plans to create a UK-based distribution arm.
Another nascent US outfit working on direct distribution is Black Bear UK, an offshoot of former STX executive John Friedberg and Teddy Schwarzman’s Black Bear International. Llewellyn Radley, another STX alumnus, heads up UK distribution. Black Bear UK’s eventual aim is to release 12-15 films a year comprising in-house productions and acquisitions. Following STX carry-over The Son in February, its upcoming slate includes Edward Berger thriller Conclave starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow, and Knox Goes Away, directed by and starring Michael Keaton.
On the streamer side, both Apple TV+ and Amazon Studios have committed to spending $1bn a year to produce films for global cinema release. Apple uses partners to handle theatrical bookings on a film-by-film basis. The company’s biggest awards success, Coda, teamed with BFI Distribution to arrange cinema bookings for a limited run in 2021 (day-and-date alongside Apple TV+) and again after its triple Oscar win in 2022. BFI received a flat fee after it expressed an interest in working on the film; Apple led on marketing decisions and the streamer did not report box office.
For Martin Scorsese’s upcoming Cannes title Killers Of The Flower Moon, Paramount Pictures, which originated the film before Apple took over as financier, is releasing it theatrically in what Screen understands will be an exclusive 45-day run in October, before it moves onto Apple’s platform. Similar strategies are likely to follow when Sony Pictures Releasing distributes Ridley Scott’s Napoleon for Apple later this year, and for Steve McQueen’s Blitz.
Amazon Studios has previously opted for limited theatrical runs in the UK and Ireland, using distribution partners such as Dogwoof and Curzon, and has not reported box office. But the release of Ben Affleck’s Air in April may mark a change of direction. Last year, Amazon-owned MGM signed a multi-year deal with Warner Bros to handle international distribution for MGM’s theatrical titles. Warner Bros executed the UK-Ireland release of Air at 599 sites under this pact, bringing in $5.5m (£4.4m) as of early May, with a near-40 day theatrical window ahead of its release on Prime Video.
US-based Mark Boxer is head of specialty theatrical distribution at Amazon Studios and runs theatrical distribution for the UK. It is possible Amazon may soon bring in a UK-based distribution expert as it prepares for the release of Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn later this year, which may go out through Warner Bros before moving to Prime Video.
While the lack of clear information about who is doing what with whom and why is frustrating, it is the gaping hole when it comes to box-office information from the streamers that is proving the bigger challenge. It is impairing the wider industry’s ability to understand itself and make informed decisions about films — about making them and distributing them, say some.
“Our predictions of what will happen are market-based, not film-based,” says Robert Mitchell, director of theatrical insights at UK film data and modelling company Gower Street Analytics. “Distributors can use our model to figure out when is a good time to release and what a film will do in different markets. It’s built on how big the market is. If you’ve got a film in the market that isn’t reporting, you don’t know how much of the market is being taken away. You don’t have a full picture.”
However, this is not likely to worry Netflix. Then-CEO Reed Hastings admitted the company left money on the table by only committing to a one-week theatrical release of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in late 2022. “But there’s no reason for Netflix to regret it — it’s simply not their business or model at all,” says one industry executive. “From what I hear, cinemas regret it on their behalf.”
Mitchell for one believes Netflix may not be as resistant to theatrical as it likes to say, having adopted a “have your cake and eat it” approach. “It has the budget to attract great filmmakers,” he says. “It gets great filmmakers, like [Martin] Scorsese, saying they want a theatrical release. Netflix is trying to pretend it’s not in the theatrical game, but increasingly, it is.”
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