I mentioned in The Wolf of Wall Street may see its November 15 release date moved and today he’s written a piece saying as much while at the same time he wonders “does it go to 2014 or to December?”
The film’s darkly comedic tone makes it look like something that may fall out of the Academy’s wheelhouse, but at the same time it’s Scorsese we’re talking about and yet another teaming with Leonardo DiCaprio, which has yielded one Oscar nomination for DiCaprio in the past not to mention a slew of other nominations and wins for their previous collaborations. On top of that, Paramount’s Oscar slate is beginning to weaken as Jason Reitman‘s Labor Day doesn’t have a mass of supporters and Alexander Payne‘s Nebraska feels a little volatile at the moment.
What must also be considered, however, is this is a business and the last time Paramount shuffled a Scorsese and DiCaprio film out of Oscar season that film was Shutter Island and it went on to become Scorsese’s second highest grossing domestic release of all-time and #1 worldwide.
Right now Wolf has a pretty nice little slot in the middle of November where it can dominate the adult market for a couple of weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and should the Oscar prospects prove high it may be able to ride a nice little wave through December. Tapley notes, however, the film only just screened for studio execs this weekend and it may contain elements that would receive an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, which clearly would need to be edited out before release. Is a November date even feasible?
One thing is for certain, it’s a film many of us are looking forward to, me as much as anyone.
