You may have been too busy bingeing episodes of The Haunting of Hill House or Frasier to notice this, but Netflix has for years stubbornly refused to release movies it owns to theaters. That goes for titles the streaming giant bought at film festivals to ones it funded entirely, like the Brad Pitt-starring War Machine. It’s made them infamous in the industry, their decision implying a grim future in which there may one day be no movie theaters at all and everyone watches cinema on their couch. Well, guess what? Netflix finally caved. A bit. Sort of.
According to Deadline, Netflix has made official that which had been suspected for the last few months: They’re giving some of their more prestigious awards season movies small, very small theatrical releases before they hit Netflix. Traditionally, any Netflix theatrical release was not only very limited, but the films went online on the same day.
The titles nabbing big screen releases are Alfonso Cuarón’s acclaimed memory piece Roma, the Sandra Bullock-starring Bird Box, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, the latest from the beloved Coen brothers that’s a star-studded Western made of six stories.
Netflix’s about-face seems to have come after the festival run of Roma, which Oscar-winning filmmaker Cuarón (Children of Men, Gravity) filmed in 65mm and recorded using extra-immersive Dolby Atmos sound. Both of those would go to waste on even the priciest home theater set-up. And yet that didn’t stop Netflix from only making this decision in late October. The real kicker, Deadline opines, appears to have been the considerable Best Picture Oscar buzz Roma acquired during its festival bows — and it’s more likely to achieve that if Netflix treats it more like a traditional movie and not just more new stuff to stream.
Again, these aren’t full, wide theatrical releases. Roma will get the largest of the three, hitting New York City, Los Angeles, and Mexico, where it takes place, on November 21 — well before its mid-December Netflix release date. From there it will expand into other markets, though few details are locked down, including the high possibility that it will play in 70mm screenings à la Dunkirk and Phantom Thread.
Meanwhile, Bird Box and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs will get a week-long release each, but only in Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and London.
The news comes too late for such recent Netflix fare as 22 July, Paul Greengrass’ intense terrorist strike docudrama, and Tamara Jenkins’ drama Private Life, starring Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti. Both of them hit streaming at the same time as a smattering of big screen showings. Meanwhile, poor Outlaw King, starring Chris Pine and Chris Pine’s wang, will hit Netflix next week, alongside another limited screening engagement.
That said, Netflix succumbing to their critics may be a game-changer. And it does come in time for next year, which boasts a record number of Netflix original films, from Stephen Soderbergh’s The Laundromat — starring Meryl Streep and Gary Oldman — the Timothée Chalamet-led The King, and Dee Rees’ The Last Thing He Wanted, with Anne Hathaway and Ben Affleck.
And then there’s a little $150 million mob movie called The Irishman, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, which you definitely don’t need to see on the big screen. (It’s not clear if they’ll go full tilt boogie and give their Michael Bay action movie 6 Underground, with Ryan Reynolds, a typical multiplex release, though that certainly sounds like a money-maker, doesn’t it?)
Of course, Netflix — who doesn’t even reveal streaming numbers unless they star Adam Sandler — could always have one of their characteristic changes of heart and decide they’ll never do this again. They already have all our money and can kind of do whatever they want.
(Via Deadline)
