Deadline says every studio wanted Killers of the Flower Moon when he was shopping around with Universal and MGM coming close. The Irishman made almost 10M from 500 theaters, most of which showed it right when it came out on Netflix; if it had a normal theatrical release without streaming, it very likely would have made 100M+ domestically and turned a profit. The Irishman's buzz combined with this being a DiCaprio-led film makes it a fairly easy bet even with the high price tag.