10 Films Cinemas Refused To Play (And Why)

As streaming becomes a bigger and bigger part of the entertainment pie, the "war" between cinemas and services like Netflix is becoming a bigger and bigger topic of discussion. And things heated up substantially with the recent release of Martin Scorsese's The Irishman.

Since the movie was financed by Netflix, it will be exclusive to that platform, but first, the company decided to play it in movie theatres for a limited time, starting on 1 November and ending on 27 November. And this decision - to have such a short theatrical window - is something that annoyed a lot of big U.S. cinema chains.

Companies including AMC, Cineplex, Regal and Cinemark declared that they disagreed with how the film was rolled out, and as such, refused to play it. From their point of view, why screen a film that's going to drop on Netflix after a few short weeks? A lot of potential customers will just wait to watch it for free at home.

And from Netflix's point of view, the choice to not send The Irishman straight to streaming was largely influenced by the fact that they want it to be an awards contender, and in order to be eligible for Oscar consideration, movies have to play in theatres for at least one week.