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| Scene from The Irishman (2019) |
This past week has been an exceptional time to be a streaming service. If you managed to manage to make it through the weekend without seeing an ad for Disney+'s The Mandalorian, you're one of few. Even Netflix has gotten their fair share of news, announcing a Breaking Bad movie called El Camino and, in more important Oscar news, a lot of information about what to expect this Fall season. Yes, there are the obvious suspects with The Irishman and Marriage Story leading potential races, but more importantly, they have announced their own release strategy, their biggest single season of theatrical programming yet. With an announcement of 10 theatrical releases, it looks like the streaming service is starting to make their transition to conventional Oscar player, which could make this one of the most exciting seasons yet.
Any film from Netflix in 2019 is far from the first to receive any controversy for its theatrical release. From the moment that Beasts of No Nation dropped, there have been complaints and boycotts that have helped keep the streaming service free from convenient Oscar campaigns. Last year saw a breakthrough with Roma, which got them into the Best Picture category and won them a Best Director for Alfonso Cuaron. However, it came with a lot of controversies that had nothing to do with the subject of the film. Many believed that it was best seen on the biggest screen possible to take in the ambiance of its Mexican setting (I'd agree). However, the theatrical release fiasco meant that those outside of major markets would have to drive long distances just to see it, especially as big chains like AMC refused to play Roma as part of its annual Best Picture screening series.
It has lead to a worthwhile discussion of what Netflix needs to do to be taken seriously. After all, their streaming counterpart Amazon Studios has had an easier time being accepted by The Academy. Of course, their release strategy is more conventional with a film playing in theaters for an extended period prior to available streaming. Netflix has been a bit more chaotic, often relying on the "same day release" strategy of theaters and streaming, which hasn't sat well with major theater chains. It makes sense, especially as it's seen as taking business away from them. Even then, their lack of commitment to helping Netflix follow an Amazon-like strategy has lead to some controversy, which arguably hurt Roma in the Best Picture race more than anything on camera.
With that said, Netflix's biggest push for Fall 2019 is The Irishman and it looks like not even Martin Scorsese will be able to break free of this curse. Major theater chains are still boycotting Netflix, but that just means that there's room for the film in independent chains.
Along with announcing that the film will run 210 minutes (or: three hours and 30 minutes, Scorsese's longest film to date), Netflix took to Twitter to announce that they will be releasing 10 of their films (including The Irishman) throughout the Fall season. The fact that they have actual dates this times is more reassuring than Roma was, which felt like it opened on a scatterplot-style schedule.
Here are some key dates for releases in the United States:
The Laundromat
-September 7 (Theatrical)
-October 18 (Netflix)
Dolemite is My Name
-October 4 (Theatrical)
-October 25 (Netflix)
The King
-October 11 (Theatrical)
-November 1 (Netflix)
The Irishman
-November 1 (Theatrical)
-November 27 (Netflix)
Earthquake Bird
-November 1 (Theatrical)
-November 27 (Netflix)
Marriage Story
-November 6 (Theatrical)
-December 6 (Netflix)
Klaus
-November 8 (Theatrical)
-November 15 (Netflix)
I Lost My Body
-November 15 (Theatrical)
-November 29 (Netflix)
Atlantics
-November 15 (Theatrical)
-November 29 (Netflix)
The Two Popes
-November 27 (Theatrical)
-December 20 (Netflix)
This is a pretty reassuring strategy. The fact that they're making a big leap to theatrical releases provides some insight that they're finally finding a niche that works for them. While this means that their initial plan years ago to have a same-day release is officially over, it at least will allow them to compete on a more professional level. Who knows. Maybe The Irishman and Marriage Story (the latter of which has the longest gap between theatrical and Netflix releases) will both make the rounds in Best Picture. It's hard to say, but it's exciting to know that there's more of a chance to see their Oscar season on the big screen than ever before.
The only issue remains that they don't have any official theaters announced. What they do have are dates waiting for places to play. Hopefully, this won't be another Roma where it's impossible for the audience to see it, only prolonging the controversy surrounding them. With that said, we won't have to wait long to see how things will kick-off. The Laundromat, the latest film from Stephen Soderbergh, premieres next week. Maybe it will be a traditional slow rollout or something else entirely. With that said, there's a lot to look forward to in the months ahead, and hopefully, that will include taking Netflix more seriously than we did last year. They have a lot to look forward to, and one can imagine that one or two will deserve to be among the Oscar conversation come January 2020. This could be history as things finally change for the streaming service, but only time will tell on that one.
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