In the middle of the Oscars telecast on Sunday, where Netflix’sRomatook home three awards including Best Director, the streaming service took the opportunity to tout its big awards contender for next year:The Irishman. While theannouncement teaserdidn’t include any footage fromMartin Scorsese’s ambitious gangster drama, it concluded with a curious statement: “In theaters this fall.”
Ultimately,Romais still playing in select theaters today, and that theatrical exhibition may have broken new ground for the streaming service’s upcoming projects. Given thatThe Irishmanhails from Scorsese, Oscar-winning writerSteven Zaillian, and boasts an ensemble that includesRobert De Niro,Al Pacino, andJoe Pesci, it’s considered a major Oscar contender. But Scorsese also wants it to be a blockbuster at the box office.
To that end,THRreports that the filmmaker has asked Netflix to giveThe Irishmana wide theatrical release (as opposed to the limited rollout ofRoma), and executives at the streaming service are working to make that happen. Major theater chains like AMC and Regal have long held fast to their rule that no film shall be shown in their theaters unless it’s given a 90-day exclusive window—meaning it can’t show up on a streaming service for three months. It’s unclear how Netflix will get around that, or if the streaming service will finally take a page out of Amazon Studios’ manual and giveThe Irishmana big theatrical push and save its online release for a few months later. That also means Netflix would finally have to release box office numbers.
The Irishmanis a major investment for the streaming service with a budget of at least $125 million. The true story drama chronicles the life of a hitman (played by De Niro), but the actors are playing their characters over many decades, and indeedthe first half of the filmwill feature them all being digitally de-aged via cutting edge visual effects technology. No other major studio would pony up the money necessary for such a gamble, which is what led Scorsese to Netflix in the first place.
2019 is shaping up to be a crucial year for Netflix. They missed out on Best Picture, but they’re planning theatrical awards season releases for other films likeSteven Soderbergh’sThe Laundromat,Dee Rees’The Last Thing He Wanted,David Michod’sThe KingstarringTimothee Chalamet,Fernando Meirelles’The Pope, and an untitledNoah Baumbachmovie starringScarlett JohanssonandAdam Driver. But 2019 is also the year that Disney launches its own streaming service Disney+, and Warner Bros. and Apple are aiming to launch their own “Netflix killers” soon as well. Competition is about to get fierce, and if Netflix wants to lead the charge in terms of awards, they’re going to have to change up their strict rules regarding theatrical windows.
The Irishmanmay be the film to open those doors, especially since filmmakers like Scorsese can now point to Netflix’s expensive Oscar campaign forRomaand say, “You did it for Alfonso, why not me?”
