Netflix Buys Rights to Two ‘Knives Out’ Sequels
When I was a kid, $100 million was the absolute maximum anyone paid for a movie. These were the biggest of the big; blockbusters beyond blockbusters. Now Netflix is paying a reported $450 million — almost half a billion dollars! — for two movies about a quirky private detective.
That would be Benoit Blanc the star of Knives Out, and now two more Knives Out sequels that will go straight to Netflix. According to Variety, the two movies will reunite star Daniel Craig and writer/director Rian Johnson, and Netflix paid “an astounding $450 million for the rights to Knives Out 2 and Knives Out 3. They call it “one of the biggest deals ever made for the rights to a movie series.” And it’s for Knives Out!
Granted, the first movie was a surprise hit; grossing over $300 million against a budget of just $40 million. Presumably, given Netflix’s enormous financial outlay for these sequels, the first Knives Out did well when it was streaming on Netflix. Still, $450 million is a huge number for two movies. These are like Avengers-sized numbers. (Then again, Chris Evans was in the first Knives Out, so maybe this one will star Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Hemsworth.)
The official Knives Out Twitter account had an appropriate response to the news:
In Netflix’s defense, Knives Out is an endlessly renewable franchise. The great fictional detectives solve dozens of mysteries over the course of their careers. Think of how many Sherlock Holmes books and movies there are over the past 100-plus years. Is $450 million a lot to pay to potentially get in on the ground floor of the next one of those characters? I guess we’ll see...
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