Daniel Craig Had Some Harsh Words For Netflix Following Knives Out 2's Premiere

Rian Johnson's 2022 film "Glass Onion," a sequel to "Knives Out," follows the eccentric detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) to a remote island overseen by a blustering tech billionaire named Miles Bron (Edward Norton). Miles has invited several of his closest friends (including characters played by Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Leslie Odom, Jr., and Kathryn Hahn) to engage in a sealed-off murder mystery game wherein he will pretend to be murdered, and then playfully ask his friends to solve an elaborate whodunnit of his devising. Blanc is there so Bron can prove his mystery can flummox an actual detective. Naturally, Blanc solves the case in a matter of minutes.

There is also a larger scheme at work, one that involves Janelle Monáe, but that is all I shall reveal here. 

The first "Knives Out" was a huge hit in 2019, making $312 million on a budget of $40 million. It was widely praised, and was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. "Glass Onion" was made for a comparable budget, but only made $15 million at the box office thanks to a wonky, experimental release schedule. Netflix decided to open "Glass Onion" in theaters on November 23, and then pull it entirely after one week, claiming that week as a "sneak preview release." The company then waited until December 23 to release it on their streaming service, with the thinking being that the one-week theatrical window would serve as publicity for the streaming exhibition.

The release formula didn't work, and "Glass Onion," despite good reviews, made just a little over $13 million theatrically. Daniel Craig predicted as much, as a story on the website Puck detailed. Craig was seen at the film's Toronto International Film Festival premiere throwing an F-bomb at Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos over the dumb idea of a mere "sneak preview release."

Almost anyone could have predicted the failure of "Glass Onion." The idea of a "sneak preview week" is foolish, as it wouldn't attract any more viewers to Netflix than were already on the service. Netflix was essentially treating the theatrical release as mere publicity, trying to get a nationwide audience excited for a movie they'd be offering at home in a month. Of course, if the people at home have to wait an extra month anyway, and the sneak preview week was only in big cities, what was the point? 

Craig, who turned in an excellent performance in "Glass Onion," hated that model, and was especially convinced when he saw the audience reaction at the movie's TIFF premiere in November of 2022. It seems that the audience was energized and excited by "Glass Onion" — a very funny film, by the way — implying that people would come out in large numbers to see it on the big screen. Craig also felt that the word-of-mouth would be overwhelming, and that it would be wise to leave "Glass Onion" in theaters for as long as it was successful. Pulling it after a week was not going to be good for the movie. 

Witnesses at TIFF overheard Craig expressing these very thoughts directly to Ted Sarandos at the premiere as audiences were giving "Glass Onion" a standing ovation. Sarandos merely repeated some phrase about how Netflix wanted to pursue a different release model, to which Craig said, according to Puck, "a variation on 'Your model is f***ed.'"

"Glass Onion" may have ultimately lost money, but Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig will return with another Benoit Blanc mystery called "Wake Up, Dead Man" in 2025. Like the previous two movies, the ensemble cast is shaping up to be astonishing. Netflix paid $450 million in 2021 to make two more Benoit Blanc films, so even if they bungled the release of "Glass Onion," they still believe in its potential to attract.