At first, the biggest doom-mongers said that screening La Bola Negra at Cannes was absurd: the film was applauded for 20 minutes and won the award for Best Director. Then they said nobody would care at the Spanish box office: it has sailed past 4 million viewers without breaking a sweat and is already the fourth highest-grossing Spanish film in history. Next was to point out that it was going to bomb in the United States. You’ll never guess what happened.
Then came the lucky break
La Bola Negra posted the best per-theater average this weekend, with $69,375. Mind you, it has only played in 4 theaters, but enough to clear $275,000 and outdo, for example, what Avengers: Endgame did in 320 theaters. Of course, this is very unusual, and that’s because the leads and directors have done several Q&As in theaters, in addition to featuring songs by Guitarricadelafuente, its star.
Specifically, it’s the second-best per-theater average in history for a non-English-language film, behind only the opening in 3 theaters of Parasite a few years ago. It’s one of the first times Netflix has released its actual box-office figures, and that’s because it’s clearly very proud: it will expand the release in the coming days to see whether the La Bola Negra effect is real and how strong its Oscar chances are.
This is the last refuge for La Bola Negra’s haters, and they do exist: the Oscars. Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi are well positioned to land nominations, at the very least, for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Non-English-Language Film, and, depending on its box office and popularity, the sky’s the limit.
