Netflix’s The Irishman heading to Broadway after major theaters refuse to screen it

Netflix’s plan to appease traditional Hollywood with its upcoming Martin Scorsese film The Irishman has not gone according to plan. The company now intends to screen the film, ahead of its debut on the streaming platform on November 27th, at a Broadway theater, after major movie theater chains balked at Netflix’s plan to stream it a mere three weeks after its theatrical debut, Deadline reports.

The film will be shown at the Shubert Organization’s Belasco Theatre in New York City, making it the first movie screening for the 112-year-old institution, from November 1st to December 1st. It will follow a standard Broadway theater schedule, which means eight screenings per week spanning Tuesday to Sunday, with matinee showings on the weekends. Netflix intends to install modern screening equipment for the 1,016-seat theater so it can properly show the film.

“We’ve lost so many wonderful theaters in New York City in recent years, including single house theaters like the Ziegfeld and the Paris,” Scorsese told Deadline in a statement. “The opportunity to recreate that singular experience at the historic Belasco Theatre is incredibly exciting.” According to Variety, Netflix is also working with smaller indie-friendly chains, like Alamo Drafthouse, to provide The Irishman with slightly more nationwide reach during its limited one-month run.

Netflix wants ‘The Irishman’ to be eligible for the Oscars

The short window will allow The Irishman to qualify for the Academy Awards, but both Netflix and Scorsese were originally hoping for a broader, more mainstream theatrical release, Indiewire reports. The issue is that major theater chains weren’t too keen. Standard Hollywood practice is that producers and studios agree to theater chains’ exclusivity agreement that dictates a certain amount of time, typically 90 days, before a movie moves from the silver screen to streaming platforms, Blu-ray, and digital download. That allows both the studio and the theater chain a chance to earn money on screenings of the film in theaters when audiences have no other choice but to see the movie for the price of a ticket stub.

But big theater chains have an adversarial relationship with Netflix, which companies like AMC and Regal parent company Cineworld view as an existential threat to the moviegoing business. That’s caused issues for Netflix as it has increasingly sought higher-profile directors and award show prestige, which often requires the company to contort itself to work within the traditional Hollywood model. Yet the crafty ways the company has jumped through eligibility hoops in recent years have earned it the ire of directors like Steven Spielberg and caused a messy withdrawal from the Cannes Film Festival last year after the festival disqualified the company for not meeting French theaters’ more demanding exclusivity requirements.

The Irishman, in particular, marks one of Netflix’s biggest events to date, with the platform nabbing not only Scorsese as director, but also iconic American crime saga actors Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci. According to Deadline, the move to screen the film at the Belasco was a way to appease Scorsese’s desire for a showy opening in the absence of a proper major theater partnership. In the past, Netflix has used film festivals and independent movie theaters for big award contenders like last year’s Best Picture nominee Roma.

Netflix signaled earlier this year that it was hoping to cut more deals for broader theatrical releases, and the platform even agreed to start showing films in theaters prior to a streaming release in hopes that would help it make inroads in negotiations. But the month-long window was apparently too short to win over major theaters. Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.