10 Films Cinemas Refused To Play (And Why)

6. Beasts Of No Nation

Beasts Of No Nation Idris Elba
Netflix

Another victim of the conflict between Netflix and traditional movie theatres, harrowing war drama Beasts of No Nation was boycotted by several large chains including AMC, Regal, and Carmike for the same reason as The Irishman: a short theatrical window.

Netflix's plan for the film was the same as the Scorsese epic: they wanted it to have a quick run in cinemas so that it would be allowed to compete during awards season. However, the boycott relegated the movie to a tiny handful of theatres, something that greatly hurt its exposure, and in the end, it received a grand total of zero Oscar nominations (though Idris Elba did win a SAG award for his performance).

Chains didn't want to give the film any screens because they firmly believe in the model of a three-month theatrical window: that is, a movie comes out in cinemas, then hits home media a minimum of 90 days later. Films that don't adhere to this "rule" will struggle to gain a wide theatrical release on thousands of screens.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!