Netflix has announced a slew of release dates for its autumn/winter film lineup, many of which are expected to be awards contenders.
The biggest news is that Martin Scorsese‘s The Irishman will have a limited cinematic run from Friday, November 1 until the end of the month. Major theatre chains have refused to show the film for fear that it will set a precedent for movies that don’t adhere to cinema’s traditional three month release window. Thus the film – which will have a whopping 3.5 hour runtime – will be screened in indie cinemas.
The film will then premiere on Netflix on Wednesday, November 27. Expect it to become either Netflix’s most watched film, or most talked about. Potentially both.
Other big Netflix releases include Noah Baumbach‘s Marriage Story, starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver. That is getting a full month in cinemas in November before hitting the streaming service on Friday, December 6. That’s a longer theatrical window than The Irishman and last year’s Roma, perhaps signalling that Netflix has high hopes for Baumbach’s latest.
But the first film in their autumn lineup will be Steven Soderbergh‘s The Laundromat, starring Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas. The film, a thriller based on the Panama Papers scandal, hits select cinemas on Friday, September 27 before arriving on Netflix Friday, October 18.
Craig Brewer‘s Dolemite Is My Name, which stars Eddie Murphy as filmmaker Rudy Ray Moore, best known for portraying the character of Dolemite in both his stand-up routine and a series of blaxploitation films, hits Netflix on Friday, October 25 after its own brief theatrical run.
Then David Michod‘s The King, starring Timothée Chalamet and Joel Edgerton, hits streaming Friday, November 1, before the Alicia Vikander-led Earthquake Bird arrives two weeks later on November 15. Both will have two-week+ theatrical runs.
Netflix rounds off the year with Fernando Meirelles‘ The Two Popes, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, Cannes darlings I Lost My Body and Atlantics, and the animated feature Klaus.
With almost all these films getting a theatrical window of sorts, Netflix has clearly seen the value of giving these films (and filmmakers) the ability to show them on the big screen. It’s especially important for films that may be up for awards. Roma was the favourite heading into the Oscars last season, and some suspect it was upset by Green Book because some voters didn’t want a Netflix title to win.
Obviously Netflix can’t help that, and they did give Roma a month in select cinemas. But they’re probably hoping that with a more consistent theatrical release plan like the one described above, they can shake the negativity of being solely a streaming platform and get some serious awards recognition.
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