Benoit Blanc and the case of the $450 million sequels
Great news for fans of Benoit Blanc, Rian Johnson, or elaborate donut hole metaphors: Netflix has reportedly dropped a massive amount of money to secure the rights to Johnson’s planned Knives Out sequels. Per Variety, the streaming service is reported to be shelling out something on the order of $450 million for the rights to the movies tentatively titled Knives Out 2 and Knives Out 3—although, by all accounts, the plan remains to have the only major connective tissue between the films be the presence of Daniel Craig’s delightfully Southern-fried dick.
Knives Out was an unexpected hit back in 2019, bringing in more than $300 million at the box office on a meager $40 million budget, and reminding Hollywood that it is, in fact, possible to have a movie everyone will go see without a colon or a Vs in the title. Of course, part of the appeal of the film was in seeing a top-notch cast (including Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Toni Collette, Ana de Armas, and more) face off against Craig’s Blanc, but we’re pretty sure Johnson will be able to line up a new crew of eccentrics to face off with everyone’s favorite gumshoe. (At least, when he’s not working on that new Star Wars movie he’s supposedly still on the hook for.)
The original Knives Out was produced (in association with Johnson’s own T-Street) by studio MRC, which has a long history with Netflix, having produced both House Of Cards and Ozark. Lionsgate distributed, and had previously talked up the possibility of a sequel, but when that streaming cash comes calling, well, you know what they say with a mystery: Follow the money.
No word yet on when we might expect to see the streaming adventures of Benoit Blanc take flight.