While this is a very un-Netflix-like thing to do for a TV series, the series finale of Stranger Things is such a big deal that the service has bent to its showrunners and is allowing the season 5, volume 3 finale to release in movie theaters for a very limited time.
This is a two-day-only event for the Stranger Things finale, and it’s a limited release, just 350 theaters across the US and Canada, where showtimes do not start until 5 PM PT, 8 PM ET, timed to occur when the finale airs on Netflix itself, so theatergoers aren’t at some sort of hours-early spoiler advantage, or vice-versa.
Those tickets are live today, and the showtime runs two hours and thirty minutes. I’m not precisely sure if that’s all-in with credits and such, but we’ve known it’s at least two hours.
Again, this is limited release in 350 theaters. In contrast, Zootopia 2 just opened in 4,000 domestic theaters this weekend.
In my local area, there are just seven times total for the Stranger Things finale showcase, 8 PM and 11:15 PM on December 31 (if you time it right you can make Eleven’s nose bleed right as it hits midnight) and then 9 AM, 12:30 PM, 3:50 PM, 7:10 PM, 10:30 PM. Obviously, those are going to change based on your location, but I would be surprised if there were too many more showtimes jammed in there. Stranger Things is huge, though I can’t be certain what kind of demand this will be, aka how fast these showings are going to sell out. I bet at least the 8 PM day one spots go fast.
Netflix’s aversion to theaters is starting to rub creators the wrong way. The Duffer brothers really had to lobby to get this done, and now they’re leaving Netflix for Paramount in part because they can make theatrical releases. Netflix has offered limited theatrical releases to movies like Knives Out and Frankenstein recently, but their directors and stars very publicly always seem to want more.
The Stranger Things idea sounds good to me. I don’t think it’s going to fail to live up to being a blockbuster, but the problem for me is A) I don’t want to rearrange my entire New Year’s Eve based on a Stranger Things showing and B) I don’t want to wait until the next day. So staying home it is.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
