President of the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) John Fithian has known as the brief theatrical run of Netflix’s “The Irishman” a “disgrace.”
“It’s a very big disappointment that Netflix and the leading theater owners couldn’t figure out a way to put a significant movie from Martin Scorsese on a lot of screens,” Fithian advised the New York Times. “This is a major director, a cinephile, who has made all kinds of important movies for our industry. And ‘The Irishman’ is going to play on one-tenth of the screens it should have played on, had Netflix been willing to come to an understanding with our members.”
NATO is a gaggle that represents the pursuits of theater chains like AMC and Cineplex.
Also Read: NATO Chief: Movie Theaters and Streaming Services Can ‘Coexist’
“Netflix is leaving significant money on the table,” Fithian added. “Think about ‘The Departed,’ in 2006. That Scorsese movie made $300 million globally. It garnered Scorsese the best director Oscar. It won best picture. It played for a long time in theaters and made a ton of money. Why wouldn’t Netflix want to monetize that before it went to Netflix? It can still be exclusive on Netflix. It can still draw subscribers. It would still be the only place you can see it at home.”
In an announcement to TheWrap, Fithian added: “There was an opportunity here for Netflix to break new ground. In a rapidly changing competitive landscape, Netflix failed to recognize the advantage a full theatrical release for ‘The Irishman’ could give them with consumers and filmmakers. Their competitors won’t make that mistake.”
Netflix had no remark, nonetheless, Scott Stuber, Netflix’s head of authentic movies, advised the Times: “For ‘The Irishman,’ it was important for us to give it that theatrical run, to put it in big houses where people could congregate and have the opportunity to see it that way. But I also think people are going to love it just as much on Netflix.”
Also Read: ‘The Irishman’ Film Review: Martin Scorsese’s Gangster Epic Is Melancholic and Bittersweet
The Martin Scorsese-directed drama is screening in solely eight theaters this weekend in Los Angeles and New York earlier than it is going to have a 26-day run in restricted theaters. It begins streaming on Netflix on Nov. 27. Typically, main exhibitors insist on 72-day durations of exclusivity earlier than movies go on streaming platforms and residential video.
According to the Times, representatives of two main theater chains agreed, independently, to decrease that quantity to round 60 days. Netflix stated it might not go over a 45-day exclusivity window. On Nov. 8, the film will play in small film theaters within the nation’s prime 10 markets, and it’ll then roll out to extra theaters within the following weeks. Last 12 months’s “Roma” had a 21-day unique launch earlier than it began streaming. Netflix then stated the film performed on roughly 1,100 screens.
Scorsese’s film had a price range of $160 million and was not a movie that many studios needed to tackle as a result of price range and the flowery de-aging course of required for the solid that consists of Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci.
Also Read: The Luck of ‘The Irishman’: How One Man’s Bookstore Visit Led to Producing the Martin Scorsese Hit (Guest Blog)
Earlier this week, the studio heads from the “Big Five” and Netfiix and Amazon took half in a roundtable dialogue for The Hollywood Reporter and agreed that solely Netflix might have produced “The Irishman.”
“It was very ambitious for a studio to take on a project like that. There is a different perception of the economics. For us, at that level, for a period drama — or for anyone, I would submit — it was ambitious. And it was perhaps too ambitious,” Paramount’s Jim Gianopulos stated.
Warner Bros.’ Toby Emmerich added, “That’s the place the buyer wins. I don’t suppose any of the studios might make that film at that price at that size and…
