Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2018 December 18

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December 18

Is it common for film companies to try to hide box-office gross numbers? Plus a question about Netflix streaming

According to this article (reliability unknown), when Netflix screened some of their original films in some theaters, they apparently merely "rented" them in what according to the link could have been an attempt by the company to hide box office numbers from being released. Is this a common practice by film distributors, or is what Netflix did unusual?

As a side question, considering Netflix is notorious for not publicly disclosing streaming numbers (although estimates are sometimes available from Nielsen), is this the standard in the streaming industry, or is only Netflix known for such a practice? Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 01:26, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

Amazon also does not publicize viewership numbers (ref). Really, there's no reason to provide them. The only reason TV networks do is because they're interested in selling commercial airtime to outside businesses. Since streaming services get their money from subscriptions they have no reason to release the numbers. Matt Deres (talk) 15:04, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

As to your first question, it is unusual for a film distributor to prevent its box office numbers from being released. In recent years, even when a film has had a disastrous performance at the box office, its grosses have typically been publicized at least for its first weekend of release. This has held true for major studio releases such as Jem and the Holograms as well as independent releases such as The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure and Delgo. Theater renting, also known as four wall distribution, has only rarely been used from the 1980s to the present; its heyday was in the 1970s, which was before accurate box office numbers became widely available anyway. (Amazon Studios has had some of its films distributed to theaters, some by traditional distributors and some directly by Amazon, but unlike Netflix they have not hidden the box office results for their films.) --Metropolitan90 (talk) 16:52, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

In China there has been a recent concern over manipulated box office numbers with distributors buying up or buying and then refunding tickets to their films.[1] Rmhermen (talk) 22:29, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for the responses to my question, they have all been rather interesting. I have two more questions: what could be possible reasons as to why Netflix does what it does with its theater screenings (i.e. apparently trying to hide box office numbers), and what has been the reaction of the industry at large to their practice. Finally, what could be the reason as to why Amazon doesn't hide theater performances then? Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 23:41, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

I don't think I'll be able to give you proper answers to those questions, but you would probably be interested in reading articles about the topic such as these from Boxoffice.com and Indiewire. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 02:01, 20 December 2018 (UTC)