While his time as James Bond concluded three years ago with the release of No Time to Die, Daniel Craig has another recurring character who’s been keeping cinema lovers entertained in recent years: the charming Southern detective known as Benoit Blanc who solved elaborate murders in 2019’s Knives Out and 2022’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Benoit will be back in our lives when the threequel Wake Up Dead Man opens next year on the 2025 movies schedule, although it remains to be seen what kind of theatrical rollout is will have following Glass Onion’s limited screenings. For his part, Craig is hoping Wake Up Dead Man, i.e. Knives Out 3, gets a much bigger release on the big screen compared to its predecessor, and I’m definitely in agreement with him on this.
To provide some context, although Knives Out was distributed by Lionsgate as a wide theatrical release, Netflix acquired the rights to the next two movies in March 2021. As a result, Glass Onion played in the United States’ three largest theater chains (AMC Theaters, Regal Cinemas and Cinemark) from November 23-29, 2022, and was then released to Netflix subscription holders a month later. When Variety asked Craig if he thinks Wake Up Dead Man should play in theaters for longer than a week, he answered:
You know I do. Hopefully, Netflix will push it out a bit, and people will get to see it. The people I speak to — the fans, I suppose — all they want to do is take their families and go see it at the cinemas. That’s all they want to do. Hopefully we can give them that experience.
A one-week run in theaters is standard for Netflix movies, although oftentimes these don’t happen in the aforementioned theaters chains, but in smaller multiplexes, which made the rollout for Glass Onion such a big deal. It still remains the only time the streaming company has given such a wide release to one of its movies. So if it were up to me, that alone would be enough to guarantee Wake Up Dead Man get the same treatment at bare minimum.
More importantly, like Daniel Craig says, Wake Up Dead Man lends itself well to a family-centric theatrical experiences. Both Knives Out and Glass Onion were critical darlings, so it stands to reason that a lot of people would come out in droves to see the third installment from writer/director Rian Johnson. This isn’t to say that Wake Up Dead Man needs a whole 90 days in theaters, but maybe Netflix could reach a new agreement that keeps it around for two-three weeks this time. That way there’s more flexibility with being able to see it on a big screen rather than be confined to a one-week window. And if you’re not interested in heading to the theater to see Knives Out 3, you can always just wait for it to hit Netflix.
Wake Up Dead Man plot details are being kept secret for now, but one thing that has been an open book is the cast. Daniel Craig will be joined this time around by Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner (who had a cameo of sorts in Glass Onion), Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack and Thomas Haden Church. It remains to be seen when the movie will specifically open in 2025, but when that information is revealed, as well as if it will get its own special theatrical rollout, we’ll let you know.
