“The Brutalist” won several top awards at Sunday night's Golden Globe Awards, taking home awards for best drama, best director and best lead actor in a drama. But it's very difficult for people to watch the story of fictional Hungarian architect László Tod, played by Adrien Brody, trying to realize his grand vision in post-war America.
Other nominees this season, like Netflix's “Emilia Perez,” which won several Golden Globes, have a comfortable home on the streaming service, where viewers are free to watch. “The Brutalist” is distributed by A24 and has a running time of 3.5 hours (including a 15-minute on-screen intermission), but is only available in select theaters.
The film will not be released nationwide until January 17th, with a wider release scheduled for January 24th, according to a person familiar with A24's distribution plans.
Where can I watch “Brutalist”?
If you don't live in Los Angeles or New York, your chances of seeing this movie by then are, well, pretty slim.
Even in these cities, where movies are often released in theaters before the rest of the country, the options for watching movies are limited. The film is currently scheduled to be shown in three theaters in New York and five theaters in Los Angeles.
You might be lucky enough to find one at arthouse movie theaters across the country. Viewers in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the main setting for “The Brutalist,” can drive to Philadelphia for two arthouse screening options.
(And if you're an Oscar voter who needs to catch up before Wednesday's nomination period begins, you'll probably have “The Brutalist” in your screener app.)
Is “The Brutalist” available for streaming?
still. A24 has a deal with Warner Bros. to make Max the streaming home for its releases, but no date has been announced for when “The Brutalist” will arrive on the platform. Considering how long it took other A24 movies to hit the Max, it might be a while before we see it at home. Alex Garland's “Civil War,'' which was released in theaters in April 2024, only became available for streaming in September.
Why is The Brutalist shown in so few theaters?
Brady Corbet's “The Brutalist,'' which had a limited theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles on December 20, is a tried-and-tested strategy for helping critical darlings appeal to mass audiences. be. “Parasite,” which won Best Picture at the 2020 Academy Awards, opened in three theaters and reached a peak of 2,001 theaters in the weeks after the Oscar ceremony. (By comparison, blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine opened in 4,210 theaters in July.)
Only two theaters in New York and Los Angeles are showing “The Brutalist” in its intended 70mm film format. This film format is an analog presentation consistent with the mid-century VistaVision camera technology used to shoot movies with high resolution and a wide field of view. Capture the vast architecture.
The closest analogue to last year's “The Brutalist” is probably Christopher Nolan's “Oppenheimer.” This is also a mid-century “great man” drama, and its running time reached the three-hour range. However, “Oppenheimer'', which won the Oscar for Best Picture, was released in thousands of theaters, thanks in part to the rise in box office revenue due to the “Barbenheimer'' phenomenon, and instantly rose to the status of a summer blockbuster.
What are some other elusive awards season movies?
Fernanda Torres won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama for her performance in “I'm Still Here,'' about a family torn apart by the military regime that ruled Brazil for decades. . Aside from film festival attendees and awards voters, few people in the U.S. have seen “I'm Still Here,” which opens in New York and Los Angeles on January 17th.
“The Nickel Boys,'' the critically acclaimed film adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel about an abusive juvenile detention center in Florida during the Jim Crow era, was also difficult to access. The film, directed by Ramel Ross and distributed by Amazon MGM Studios, was released in mid-December, but it has not yet been shown in less than 20 theaters and no official streaming release date has been set.
