<P> In the film, Chinese Americans were common enough in the city to have their own community and public venues . Significant Chinese migration to New York City did not begin until 1869 (although Chinese people migrated to America as early as the 1840s), the time when the transcontinental railroad was completed . The Chinese theater on Pell St. was not finished until the 1890s . The Old Brewery, the overcrowded tenement shown in the movie in both 1846 and 1862--63, was actually demolished in 1852 . </P> <P> The original target release date was December 21, 2001, in time for the 2001 Academy Awards but the production overshot that goal as Scorsese was still filming . A twenty - minute clip, billed as an "extended preview", debuted at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and was shown at a star - studded event at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès with Scorsese, DiCaprio, Diaz and Weinstein in attendance . </P> <P> Harvey Weinstein then wanted the film to open on December 25, 2002, but a potential conflict with another film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Catch Me If You Can produced by DreamWorks, caused him to move the opening day to an earlier position . After negotiations between several parties, including the interests of DiCaprio, Weinstein and DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg, the decision was made on economic grounds: DiCaprio did not want to face a conflict of promoting two movies opening against each other; Katzenberg was able to convince Weinstein that the violence and adult material in Gangs of New York would not necessarily attract families on Christmas Day . Of main concern to all involved was attempting to maximize the film's opening day, an important part of film industry economics . </P> <P> After three years in production, the film was released on December 20, 2002; a year after its original planned release date . Gangs of New York is notable in that it remains the only film released since 1986 not to award Daniel Day - Lewis top billing . While the film has been released on DVD and Blu - ray, there are no plans to revisit the theatrical cut or prepare a "director's cut" for home video release . "Marty doesn't believe in that," editor Thelma Schoonmaker stated . "He believes in showing only the finished film ." </P>

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