Movie theaters are turning their business models Upside Down

The domestic box office experienced a successful winter holiday season, with Avatar: Fire and Ash, The Housemaid, Marty Supreme, Anaconda, and Zootopia 2 all bringing movie fans to the theaters.

But the biggest single-day gross posted by any release over the past two weeks wasn’t a movie.

• The series finale of Netflix TV show Stranger Things, which ran in North American theaters for 24 hours simultaneously with its streaming debut on New Year’s Eve, earned an estimated $25 million–$30 million at the box office, according to Deadline.

It was a lucrative event for theaters. Contractual issues dictated that the tickets for this event were technically free, though most cinemas offered $20 concession vouchers to reserve seats. This means that rather than splitting the pot with the distributor, as is usually the case, that money went entirely to theaters themselves.

Zoom out: The Stranger Things release marks the latest example of theaters and distributors leaning into non-traditional releases in an attempt to boost their struggling bottom lines.

In just the past year: hot Broadway shows like Hamilton appeared in movie theaters across the US, Netflix arranged a series of theatrical engagements for its hit animated musical KPop Demon Hunters, and Taylor Swift’s release party for her album The Life of a Showgirl made $50 million globally in theaters.