Netflix is ready to turn on the hype machine with its Netflix Tudum event streaming live on Netflix at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT on Saturday, May 31. While live performances and star appearances are part of the proceedings, the big draw for Netflix Tudum is that it’s where the streamer is expected to show exclusive looks at some of their biggest upcoming TV shows and movies.
Right near the top of that list of anticipated titles is Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, the third Benoit Blanc movie starring Daniel Craig and pegged for a 2025 release. While Netflix has officially included Wake Up Dead Man as part of the Netflix Tudum lineup, it has not said what exactly they’re going to be sharing from the movie. If I had to bet, I would say the evening will likely bring our first look at the Wake Up Dead Man trailer.
As excited as I am to get a first-look at the third movie in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out franchise, that is not the bit of news I am most interested in hearing. Instead, I want to know what is going on with the Wake Up Dead Man release. Not just its release date, but if, when, where and for how long Wake Up Dead Man may be playing in movie theaters?
Netflix, famously, is not all that interested in the movie theater business. A majority of its movies never release in theaters, instead simply premiering on the streaming platform right away for subscribers. The lone exception is when Netflix wants to position a movie for potential Oscars.
The Academy Awards require that eligible movies have an exclusive release in movie theaters for at least seven days in at least one select markets (Los Angeles, New York and a couple other major cities qualify). For all the Netflix movies that have been nominated in its history, they typically do the bare minimum required to become Oscar eligible, then they’re pulled from theaters and made available to stream (either right away or with a slight delay).
That was the case for Glass Onion, the previous Knives Out movie. Netflix gave Glass Onion a limited release in 600 movie theaters for one week in late November 2023, pulled it, never reported box office grosses for the movie and then put it on the streaming platform around Christmas time. In terms of awards, Glass Onion earned a single Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
I fully expect that to be the minimum of what Netflix will do with Wake Up Dead Man, but I’m holding out hope that the streamer may finally realize they can have their cake and eat it too: a box office smash and then a streaming hit.
Multiple studies and analysis from the last five years have shown evidence that movies that first get a theatrical release perform better on streaming services than those that simply premiere on streamers.
To examine that claim, let’s take a look at Netflix itself. After One of Them Days, one of the best reviewed movies of 2025 and a solid box office performer, premiered on Netflix in late March, it spent three straight weeks in the top 10 of Netflix’s most watched movies. Conversely, one of the big Netflix original movies to be released so far this year, Havoc, only spent two weeks in the top 10. In fairness, Vince Vaughn’s Nonnas has matched One of Them Days’ three weeks in the top 10 and could potentially top it (that will be determined next week).
But whether or not that happens, the idea that a movie theater release does appear to give some added cache to a title when it does hit streaming appears to have merit. That’s likely why many other streamers and studios — Apple TV Plus, Prime Video, Warner Bros. — have opted to put many of their biggest movies in theaters before debuting them on streaming.
Netflix has shown signs that they are starting to budge a little, including announcing earlier this year that Greta Gerwig’s Chronicles of Narnia movie will be released in IMAX movie theaters around the world for two weeks in 2026. However, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said at the time that there was “no change at all” to Netflix’s theatrical strategy.
I hope Sarandos and Netflix have had a change in heart and realize the boom that could be releasing their movies exclusively in movie theaters for an extended run. Especially a star-studded one like Wake Up Dead Man, which in addition to Craig features Jeremy Renner, Josh O’Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Andrew Scott, Kerry Washington, Thomas Haden Church and Glenn Close as potential suspects. Maybe not a run like Sinners or A Minecraft Movie, but a wide release so everyone who wants to see it on the big screen can easily do so.
That’s what I’m wishing will be the big take away from the Netflix Tudum event — though I’m also just excited to see the Wake Up Dead Man trailer.
