Martin Scorsese’s highly-anticipated new Netflix film, The Irishman, is coming to Broadway… sort of. The mob epic starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci will screen at Broadway’s Belasco Theatre in New York City for its limited one-month theatrical release, starting on November 1, according to a report from IndieWire.
The film, which has a three-and-a-half-hour runtime, will be the first-ever movie shown at the 1,016-seat theater in midtown Manhattan. Most recently, the theatre was home to Network, which closed in June. Netflix is planning to install brand new film equipment in order to screen Scorsese’s film. There will be eight Irishman showtimes a week at the Belasco Theatre: Tuesday through Saturday nights, and matinees on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. Tickets will be $15, processing fees not included. There will be no intermission.
The reason Netflix is opting for such an unusual method of movie-screening is because most major movie chains are off-limits for The Irishman. Netflix does not follow the traditional theatrical window of movie releases—usually 74 to 90 days, compared to The Irishman‘s 27 days—and therefore relies on independent theaters in New York and Los Angeles to screen theatrical releases. It’s not yet clear which theaters will be willing to screen The Irishman, but other Netflix films, such as Roma, screened at Landmark and Alamo Drafthouse locations last year.
“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 said in a statement for the press release. “The opportunity to re-create that singular experience at the historic Belasco Theatre is incredibly exciting. Ted Sarandos, Scott Stuber, and their team at Netflix have continued to find creative ways to make this picture a special event for audiences and I’m thankful for their innovation and commitment.”
The Irishman currently holds a 100 percent rating on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, and Netflix is angling for an Academy Award. Renting a thousand-seat stage theater in New York City could certainly help get the film in front of New York Academy voters. But personally, I shudder to think of the state of everyone’s butts after three-and-a-half intermission-less hours in a Broadway seat.
The Irishman will open in select theaters on November 1 before hitting Netflix globally on November 27.
Original Post https://decider.com/2019/10/07/the-irishman-netflix-on-broadway/