After weeks of speculation, Paramount has moved Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” from Nov. 15 for a nationwide release on Dec. 25. The news was made official Tuesday afternoon when the studio’s distribution division sent out an announcement.
The move to Christmas Day was always dependent on whether Scorsese would be able to finish the film in time. Paramount has been planning for a year-end release since the summer and was ready to go with the holiday release, regardless.
If Scorsese had not been able to finish the film in time, the director still wanted to make the release an event timed around the Cannes Film Festival potentially, according to sources familiar with the situation.
“Wolf of Wall Street,” from producer Red Granite Pictures, is based on Jordan Belfort’s memoir recounting his time in the ’90s as a stock swindler. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey and Jonah Hill.
Par now will be gunning hard for the film during awards season.
A list of other Oscar contenders have vacated the race in recent weeks, including Sony Classics’ “Foxcatcher,” the Weinstein Co.’s “Grace of Monaco” and Sony’s “The Monuments Men,” which sources say the studio pushed back, in part, based on the assumption that Par would end up making the year-end release for “Wall Street.”
The film’s Christmas release date ultimately was preempted by Par’s bumping back “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” to next year during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.
