Knives Out: The Glass Onion Sequel to premiere in select theatres before streaming on Netflix

After exhibitors and the streaming service secured an agreement for a nationwide sneak peek run of Rian Johnson's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, major US theatre chains will screen a Netflix film for the first time.

AMC, Regal Cinemas, and Cinemark will all screen the Knives Out sequel for an exclusive one-week run beginning November 23, before it becomes available for streaming on December 23, on Netflix.

Until recently, those chains largely rejected scheduling Netflix releases. However, as theatrical windows shrunk from three months to typically closer to 45 days, Netflix and theatres finally found common ground!

Johnson's movie will play in around 600 domestic theatres in addition to an overseas rollout, whereas a wide release generally plays in more than 3,000 cinemas in North America.

The deal stops short of a full theatrical release window for Glass Onion, which premiered last month at the Toronto International Film Festival and stars Daniel Craig as detective Benoit Blanc.

Scott Stuber, head of global film at Netflix, said, “Given the excitement surrounding the premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, we hope fans will enjoy this special theatrical event in celebration of the film’s global debut on Netflix in December.”

Because of Glass Onion's history at the box office, negotiations between exhibitors and Netflix had centred on it for months. Knives Out was one among the year's biggest original hits, bringing in more than $311 million for Lionsgate in total ticket sales.

Following a bidding war, Netflix paid $450 million to buy two sequels. Johnson had expressed an interest in seeing it performed theatrically broadly.

“This movie, above everything else, is designed to be a good time with a big crowd of folks in a theatre,” the director said in an earlier interview with The Associated Press.

Johnson praised Netflix for working with AMC, Regal, and Cinemark to bring Glass Onion to theatres for this unique sneak preview on October 6, in a statement that he found "over the moon."

Adam Aron, chairman and chief executive of AMC, said the first-ever agreement “sufficiently respects the sanctity of our current theatrical window policy.”

Aron said he hoped it will lead to more cooperation between Netflix and AMC, the largest theatre chain.

“As we have often said, we believe that both theatrical exhibitors and streamers can continue to co-exist successfully,” said Aron in a statement.

“Beyond that, though, it has been our desire that we find a way to crack the code and synergistically work together. By doing so, theatres will make more money by having more titles to show, and thanks to the larger cultural resonance those movies can gain from a theatrical release, they will wind up playing to a wider audience when they also are viewed on streaming platforms.”

Glass Onion revolves around tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton), who invites a small group of friends to his private island for a murder mystery party.

The cast includes Janelle Monáe, Dave Bautista, Madelyn Cline, Kathryn Hahn, Kate Hudson, Jessica Henwick and Leslie Odom Jr.