Netflix Struggling to Get Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman in Theaters

The war between Netflix and major theater chains has now spilled over into one of the streaming giant’s most high profile projects of all time: Martin Scorsese‘s The Irishman. Part of the reason Scorsese agreed to make his latest crime epic on Netflix is because the company has always planned on releasing the film in theaters, as well as on the streaming service. However, theaters still aren’t happy with how Netflix is aiming to do that.

According to a new report from The New York Times, negotiations are still ongoing between Netflix and national theater chains AMC and Cineplex. Talks between Netflix and the theaters stalled out back in July and have picked back up in the last couple of weeks, but there’s no information as to how those conversations are going just yet. The theaters want Netflix to wait at least a couple of months before the film is available to stream after arriving in theaters. Of course, Netflix isn’t keen on that idea.

“Talks are underway about our showing The Irishman and other Netflix films, but the outcome of those conversations is not yet clear,” AMC executive Adam Aron told The Times.

At this time, the other two biggest chains in the country, Regal and Cinemark, are not in negotiations with Netflix regarding The Irishman or other films.

With Scorsese at the helm, and an all-star cast of Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Jo Pesci in front of the camera, Netflix wants to make a big awards push for The Irishman this year, just as it did for Roma last year. The only problem is that theatrical release window, which has become a massive point of contention between the streaming studio and the various awards committees.

“There will be some sort of theatrical component,” assured The Irishman producer Jane Rosenthal. “You have to have that. It’s a different experience than watching it at home. In a theater, you may start to laugh at something because the people next to you are laughing – and The Irishman is very funny, much like Goodfellas is funny.”

As of now, there is no official theatrical release date for The Irishman.