La Bola Negra landed at Cannes in May with co-directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi sharing the Best Director prize with Paweł Pawlikowski for Fatherland. It then won the People's Choice Award at Toronto — the first Netflix title to take that prize, and the first international film to win it in 15 years. Audience awards followed at San Sebastián (a 9.4/10 score, the highest for a Spanish film in the festival's history), Sydney, and Busan. By the time it quietly opened in four New York and Los Angeles cinemas on October 16, the trajectory was clear.
Its $277,500 opening from four screens translated to a $69,375 per-screen average. Netflix publicly released the box office figures, marking the first time the streamer has ever disclosed data for one of its films. Netflix does not do this out of principle. It does this because the numbers are good.
The film spans 1932, 1937, and 2017. It follows three gay men whose lives intersect through Federico García Lorca's unfinished play of the same name. Singer-songwriter Guitarricadelafuente makes his screen debut as Sebastián, a villager conscripted into the Nationalist army. Miguel Bernardeau plays Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, a wounded Republican prisoner and real-life lover of Lorca. Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close appear in supporting roles. The budget was approximately €15 million. The film earned over €35 million in Spain alone.
Netflix gave it a 47-day exclusive theatrical window before its December 2 streaming date — the longest in the streamer's history, surpassing Marriage Story. The film expands into UK and Irish cinemas on November 6. It is Spain's submission for Best International Feature at the 99th Academy Awards, and Netflix's campaign places it alongside Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey in the Best Picture race.
"Every generation needs that big movie that speaks to their desires, their warmth," Calvo told the Associated Press in October. Ambrossi added: "It's a movie that could really change consciousness." Whether the Academy has moved far enough toward Netflix to vote it Best Picture remains the question. The festival circuit has already answered its own.
