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Scorsese's The Irishman Gets Thanksgiving 2019 Release Date Window
Martin Scorsese's The Irishman will be released around Thanksgiving 2019. An adaptation of Charles Brandt's biographical book I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran & Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa, The Irishman is a passion project that Scorsese's been trying to get off the ground for over ten years now. The filmmaker finally caught a break when STX Entertainment picked up The Irishman in May 2016... only for Netflix to step in nine months later and pay a hefty sum to release the movie, instead. It's been mostly smooth sailing for The Irishman since then, and it's currently well on its way to a late 2019 release.
Netflix, for its part, sees The Irishman as a prospective Oscar contender, and even unveiled the film's teaser trailer during this year's Academy Awards ceremony broadcast (as a way of planting its flag in the sand). In spite of that, however, the streaming service has been hesitant announce when, exactly, the movie will become available for streaming and/or begin a nationwide theatrical release, as part of its awards season campaign. Thankfully, longtime Scorsese producer Irwin Winkler recently shed some light on the matter.
In an interview on Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast, Winkler revealed that The Irishman is set for a Thanksgiving 2019 release window. At the same time, he didn't specify a specific date and refrained from clarifying whether The Irishman will become available for streaming or begin its general theatrical run over that frame (presumably, before it starts streaming).
Whatever the case may be, The Irishman is now one of several high-profile films that're slated to premiere (either at home or in-theaters) over this year's Thanksgiving frame. And although the competition includes heavy-hitters like Disney's Frozen 2, as well as fellow awards hopefuls like the Fred Rogers docudrama A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, The Irishman should be able to hold its own during that window. After all, it doesn't need to be a huge hit in theaters to be a success in Netflix's eyes. In many ways, the movie's theatrical run is more about appeasing members of the Academy who're still wary about Netflix Originals competing for Oscars, as opposed to the box office returns.
That said, The Irishman is estimated to have cost upwards of $200 million to make, primarily because of the visuals effects needed to allow stars Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci to portray younger versions of themselves in the movie's first half. Netflix surely wouldn't mind making some extra money on the film, in other words, and will presumably try to put The Irishman in a position where it has a good shot at enjoying a lucrative run on the big screen. As far as general audiences are concerned, though, it's just nice to know that they'll have more options when it comes to how they want to watch Scorsese's latest crime saga.
