Glass Onion will be available to stream on Netflix, but only a month after its theatrical release across select theatres in the United States.
Glass Onion is the second film in the Knives Out franchise and even though it had the same director and lead actor, the film has an entirely new plot.
Glass Onion will be released on Netflix just as the first Knives Out film was, but it will be released in select theatres before this, in November of 2022.
What is Glass Onion about?
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, or simply Glass Onion, is the much awaited sequel to the exceptionally successful Knives Out film, which was released in 2019.
The movie features the same director as the first film, Rian Johnson, and sees Daniel Craig reprise his role as the eccentric detective Benoit Blanc.
This time around, detective Benoit Blanc sets out to solve an all-new mystery on the coast of Greece, when a murder-mystery party that was hosted by a tech billionaire named Miles, who is played by Edward Norton, becomes all too real, and one of the guests is murdered.
Will Glass Onion be on Netflix?
Glass Onion had its international debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September 2022, but the film’s release schedule following this debut is a bit more complicated than that of a regular Netflix film.
Although Glass Onion is technically a Netflix movie, and the sequel to another well-known Netflix movie that brought the platform much success, Glass Onion will first be released in theatres for a limited time before the film will be available on Netflix.
This means that Glass Onion will have a theatrical release between 23 November 2022 and 29 November 2022 in 600 theatres in the United States, before its official release on the Netflix streaming platform.
This theatrical release was brought about by the fact that Netflix bought the rights for the film from Lionsgate.
Fortunately, fans of the first film that miss out on this theatrical release will not have to wait too long, as Glass Onion will officially begin streaming on Netflix just a month later on Friday, 23 December 2022 at 12 a.m. Pacific Time or 3 a.m. Eastern Time.
Why is the release schedule for Glass Onion so complicated?
The reason why Glass Onion is getting a theatrical release even though it is a Netflix film is because Netflix bought the rights to the sequel from Lionsgate, and this deal likely included the condition that the film had to be released in theatres first.
This means that when the film’s director, Rian Johnson, and his producing partner, Ram Bergman, decided to sell the rights to the sequel, Netflix and other streaming giants like Apple and Amazon were invited to a discreet auction in which they had to bid for the rights to release the second and third Knives Out films.
Netflix definitely had the most skin in the game, as winning the rights to the sequel would give them the right to have a legitimate event film franchise on their platform, not to mention the fact that the first film reportedly made a global gross profit of $311 million.
This is also probably why Netflix ended up paying a reported sum of over $400 million for Glass Onion and another, third film in the franchise.
Why Glass Onion’s complicated release schedule is actually a good thing
Although the fact that Glass Onion will be released in theatres first has confused some fans, it actually may not be such a bad thing, since it gives fans of the franchise the chance to watch it over the Thanksgiving holidays in theatres or during the Christmas holidays on Netflix.
The film may not fall into the category of a traditional Christmas movie, but the excellent cast and clever writing means that it will most likely be entertaining for the whole family to watch.
How has the film been received so far?
Since the first Knives Out film had such a successful run, Glass Onion certainly has a lot to live up to. Fortunately, the reviews for this sequel have been quite positive so far.
Although Glass Onion does not have exactly the same level of intrigue as the first film, Rian Johnson’s signature witty writing pokes fun at the extravagant lives of celebrities and it keeps the suspense high throughout the film.
The ensemble cast also has a much bigger role in the entire film and although this does not take away from Daniel Craig’s performance in the lead role, it does set the film apart from its predecessor and helps it stand on its own.