• Box Off Mojo
• Knives Out Run Time

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At the end of March 2021, shock waves went through Hollywood when Netflix announced that it would produce not one, but two sequels to Rian Johnson's 2019 whodunit Knives Out — for a hefty sum.

After the first film — which boasts a star-studded cast that includes Jamie Lee Curtis, Ana de Armas, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Toni Colette, Chris Evans, Katherine Langford, and the late Christopher Plummer, among others — became a breakout success, earning $311 million at the box office on a budget of $40 million and scoring rave reviews from critics across the board, the movie's original studio, Lionsgate, was ready to kick off a bona-fide franchise. Alongside Johnson, Lionsgate announced, in February of 2020, that the writer-director would pen a sequel featuring the original film's star detective, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), featuring an entirely new mystery.

Now, it looks like Netflix has stolen Lionsgate's thunder by paying an astounding $469 million for two new Knives Out films. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the first film's overwhelming success, here's the real reason Netflix paid so much more for Knives Out 2 and 3.

The Knives Out franchise will be a huge hit for Netflix

As an analysis in The Hollywood Reporter reveals, Netflix's 'power play' in securing the Knives Out sequels comes down to a few particular factors: the COVID-19 pandemic, and a particularly shrewd deal the streamer offered to director Rian Johnson.

THR reports that Netflix offered Johnson ultimate creative control of both films — meaning they won't even give him any notes or offer input — and as long as Johnson keeps the budget around $40 million and Craig stars in both films, the director and actor both stand to make huge money from the deal. Obviously, this must have been a huge draw for Johnson, but there's also another factor — the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the state of the film industry.

After movie theaters shuttered en masse thanks to the global health crisis in March 2020, plenty of huge films — including No Time to Die, Craig's final James Bond film — have been either shelved indefinitely or rescheduled repeatedly as the fate of the moviegoing experience is still unknown. With this in mind, it's likely that Johnson, aware that streaming services have become the de facto way for moviegoers to discover new content, knew that Netflix would be the safest bet as the film industry undergoes enormous changes thanks to the coronavirus crisis.

In any case, Lionsgate is out where Knives Out is concerned and Netflix is in, and eventually, Netflix subscribers will get to watch these highly anticipated sequels right from their own home. For now, the first Knives Out movie — a perfectly crafted murder mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end — is available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Box Off Mojo

We don’t typically write about Hollywood paydays at /Film unless they’re especially huge, but a new report brings word of three new instances which absolutely fit that description. Writer/director Rian Johnson, producer Ram Bergman, and star Daniel Craig are all poised to make $100 million each thanks to the surprising Knives Out sequels deal that Netflix made last week. The deal itself was worth $469 million, but the fact that these three players will receive $100 million each puts them in rarified air in Hollywood history. That’s Robert-Downey-Jr-Avengers-level money.

According to a new piece in THR, “The pact gave Johnson immense creative control, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. He doesn’t have to take notes from the streamer. The only contingencies were that Craig must star in the sequels and that each must have at least the budget of the 2019 movie, which was in the $40 million range. Sources say that Johnson, Bergman and Craig stand to walk away with upwards of $100 million each.”

Again, that is a lot of money. Downey is the only person I can think of who’s in in the same stratosphere. For Avengers: Endgame, he’s rumored to have made around $75 million when you factor in his lucrative back-end profit participation deal.

If you’ll allow me to concern-troll for a moment: when you make that much money, you run the risk of becoming disconnected with reality to a degree and either being unwilling, unable, or uninterested in taking notes and advice from anyone when it comes to creative decision-making on future projects. That may sound great on paper, but it’s also probably how things like Dolittle end up happening. There is something to be said for the idea of compromises and restrictions being essential to creating the most interesting version of a film. But Johnson knows this, and he’s one of the most humble and hardworking people in the industry. I fully trust his creative instincts and have no doubt that these sequels will end up being great.

The THR piece mentions that in January, “with the pandemic in full swing,” Johnson and Bergman (who own the rights to Knives Out) “questioned the near-term viability of theatrical releasing” and decided to go out to streamers for the sequels, and a bidding war erupted, with Netflix coming out victorious. There may be some grumbling about this deal being a big blow to theatrical moviegoing, but considering the circumstances around which this decision was made (remember, it was long before the vaccine rollout was as effective as it has since become), it’s tough to blame Johnson and Bergman for doing what they had to do in order to guarantee that these sequels could get made.

Knives Out Run Time