Netflix’s willingness to throw money around has quickly gained them a lot of power around Hollywood, but it seems they weren’t able to get what they wanted out of theater chains in regards to The Irishman. In recent days we’d heard of a dispute between Netflix and the major exhibitors over the release of Martin Scorsese’s film, and it seems things have ended on something of a stalemate, but at least we know when The Irishman will be in theaters and for how long.
The Irishman will get a theatrical release beginning on November 1st in Los Angeles and New York, and will run four weeks exclusively in theaters before hitting Netflix on November 27th. However, while the film will expand into major cities during that stretch, you won’t be able to see it at Regal, Cineplex, or AMC theaters which refused to break their 90-day exclusive release window.
What’s interesting about this is Netflix’s clear willingness to push the envelope a little bit for The Irishman, giving it the longest theatrical run of any movie they’ve had. Their flexibility on this subject will be something to keep a close eye on in the future. After the Oscars love shown to Roma last year, they now understand the value of a movie having an extensive run theatrically, just not as long as the chains demanded.
As for the exhibitors, they simply couldn’t take the risk of bending the rules for Netflix. If they did, it wouldn’t be long before Disney asked for the same thing, and all one needs to do is look at the box office any weekend to see how much money would be lost if the Mouse House decided to pull their movies onto Disney+ or other platforms after only a couple of weeks rather than after a few months.
So if you want to see The Irishman in theaters, you should be able to. You just might have to shop around a little bit for it.
