‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Ruins Hollywood’s Christmas Plans

There’s always that one relative who doesn’t tell you when exactly they’re coming for the holidays until the very last minute, leaving you scrambling to find an air mattress and stocking stuffers when you should be sipping hot cocoa. This year, Wolf of Wall Street — directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio — is that annoying relative for Hollywood.

Paramount finally confirmed Tuesday that it has moved Wolf of Wall Street‘s release date to Christmas Day, which has had a ripple effect. Though Oscar hopefuls and holiday blockbusters usually jam up right around the holidays, this year feels particularly bad. Christmastime was already feeling a little jammed with American Hustle, Walking With Dinosaurs, Anchorman 2, Saving Mr. Banks and Inside Llewyn Davis all coming out that weekend.

To help ease the holiday-movie overload, Sony moved American Hustle to a December 18th release, taking the place of the would-be Oscar hopeful Monuments Men, which was moved to February for editing reasons. (Note now that George Clooney’s Monuments Men is out of 2013 Oscar contention, but Wolf of Wall Street is sneaking in right under the wire.)

Paramount also decided to move its original holiday release, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, starring Chris Pine, to Jan. 17. That will most likely mean that one of the three other movies slated to open the same day (The Nut Job, Ride Along and Devil’s Due) will move as well.

And the Nov. 15 weekend — flanked by a Thor: The Dark World weekend and a The Hunger Games: Catching Fire weekend — is still free for a wide release. Which studio might slot an early release there is anyone’s guess. (My personal hope: Anchorman 2 comes sooner because we’ve been waiting oh so long for it.)

So why was Wolf of Wall Street pushed back from its original November 15 release date in the first place? Scorsese may be partly to blame. His original cut supposedly ran three hours and was so explicit that it could have earned an NC-17. Not that many viewers would have minded some Leo nudity.