When director Abel Ferrara received a letter from IFC Films, the US distributor, telling the filmmaker to deliver an R-rated version so that it could match the version to be released on Showtime during its pay TV window, the director was disgusted and refused to back down telling THR "Welcome to New York is not being distributed in the U.S. because of this company, IFC, which I'm totally disgusted with." He stated "They knew from day one when they bought this film that they had the final version and that it wasn't going to be changed."