Cliff Booth Movie: Release Date, IMAX Theaters and Netflix Date

"Cliff Booth" was one of the most-searched entertainment terms in the U.S. on Sunday night, and it's easy to see why. Netflix dropped a second trailer on Friday, the film opens in a little over two weeks, and two of the country's biggest theater chains have decided not to show it on their IMAX screens.

If you're just trying to work out when and where you can see it, here's the short version, followed by the backstory.

Release dates at a glance

The Nov. 25 opening lands on Thanksgiving week, and the Netflix date is just before Christmas, so there's roughly a four-week gap between the two.

Where you can and can't see it

AMC, the largest U.S. chain, is showing the film in IMAX. Regal and Cinemark, the next two biggest, are not. Both pointed to Netflix's short window between theaters and streaming, and both are giving their IMAX auditoriums to The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, which opens the weekend before, Deadline reports.

Independent theaters can book it as well, and unlike AMC's IMAX houses they're allowed to play it on regular screens. If you don't live near an AMC with IMAX, a local independent cinema is your best bet before Dec. 23.

Why the theater chains are fighting about it

IMAX's chief executive, Rich Gelfond, made his feelings plain on the company's earnings call on Thursday. "Frankly, I don't understand why anybody wouldn't play it," he said. His argument: a chain with hundreds or thousands of screens could run Hunger Games on lots of regular screens and Cliff Booth in IMAX, and call it "a win-win."

He thinks some exhibitors are "standing on ceremony" over the Netflix window, and pointed to the KPop Demon Hunters sing-along from summer 2025, which many chains played after it had already been on Netflix. Regal and Cinemark, for their part, have stuck with the view that the window is simply too short.

There's some history to the slot, too. It's Netflix's first IMAX release, and the late-November frame was first held for Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew, another Netflix film, which has moved to February with a full theatrical window.

What the new trailer shows

The second trailer gives a much clearer sense of the plot than September's teaser did. It's 1977, eight years after Cliff tangled with the Manson family in Tarantino's alternate 1969, and Los Angeles has less use for a stuntman. Netflix describes him picking up bartending and projectionist work, and moonlighting as a fixer for Hollywood's famous and not-so-famous, with "murder, blackmail, theft, extortion" in the mix.

According to Deadline, the story pulls Cliff into a scheme involving another Hollywood star, played by Scott Caan. Tarantino also showed the first 17 minutes of the film at an AFI Fest panel in late October.

Who made it

Quentin Tarantino wrote the screenplay but chose not to direct it. David Fincher, who has an exclusive deal with Netflix, took over with Tarantino's blessing. Fincher's regulars are back behind the camera, including cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt and editor Kirk Baxter.

Brad Pitt, who won the supporting actor Oscar for playing Cliff in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, also produces. The cast includes Elizabeth Debicki, Scott Caan, Carla Gugino, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Peter Weller, Corey Fogelmanis and Karren Karagulian, and ComingSoon reports that Timothy Olyphant is back as TV cowboy James Stacy.

Gelfond, who has seen an extended clip, predicted a "surprisingly successful run" for anyone who likes Tarantino, Pitt and Fincher. With only two weeks in IMAX and a big chunk of the country's premium screens off the table, fans who want the big-screen version shouldn't wait long.