Universal will be extending the exclusive theatrical window for 2027 releases to 45 days (seven weekends), Deadline has confirmed. This theatrical window will not extend to Focus Features titles which will still remain around 17 days. Note, Uni playing movies at five weekends exclusively is not new news; they’ve already been doing this for some time on their big studio fare.
The studio during Covid laid out a very specific play of 17 days in theaters for those titles opening to less than $50M before going to PVOD, and then 30 days for those movies opening north of $50M before heading to PVOD. This was all part of a very specific financial waterfall strategy of downstream revenues with Peacock serving as a pay-one window followed by Amazon in the subsequent window for some titles.
Donna Langley, the chairwoman of NBCUniversal Entertainment, made this all official about Universal’s window plans to the New York Times this AM, “Our windowing strategy has always been designed to evolve with the marketplace, but we firmly believe in the primacy of theatrical exclusivity and working closely with our exhibition partners to support a healthy, sustainable theatrical ecosystem.”
AMC circuit boss Adam Aron, who often tussled with Langley in the headlines over window crunching during Covid, beamed on X today, “Big news. The highest praise for NBCUniversal Chairman Donna Langley and her team Pete Levinsohn and Jim Orr. I cannot say enough good things about Donna Langley’s leadership of Universal. First and foremost, she is a superb film maker. Add to that her grace, business acumen and courage in making important decisions that have real ramifications supporting the entire movie ecosystem.” Aron coming out of last year’s CinemaCon was championing studios to go to 45 days on windows.
“Universal remains a theatrical-first studio,” Ms. Langley told the New York Times, “That’s proven by the breadth of our slate, our commitment to our filmmakers and the ongoing investments we make in the creative community.”
Window length is typically determined by the success of the movie. It’s only in cases when it’s tanking, or a studio knows that limited cash is available in regards to gross does a movie go through a 17 day exclusive window cycle. Theatrical remains a marketing tool to boost a title’s profile throughout subsequent windows. That was clearly realized during Covid and coming out after Universal, Warner Bros and others began experimenting with a theatrical day-and-date window. Uni was the first to get its feet wet with the dynamic model on Trolls World Tour which made over $100M in the home entertainment window. Other day-and-date Universal titles followed in theaters on Peacock including the last two Halloween movies and Five Night’s at Freddy’s which posted the best opening for a theatrical title with a same-day streaming day and date launch, that 3-day being $80M domestic. The sequel wound up going purely theatrical last December.
Universal’s news about extending the theatrical window follows in the wake of the industry’s worry that it was bound to get crunched by Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos in the streamer’s bid for Warner Bros. Sarandos in his public messaging was typically sour on theatrical and bullish about event films on streaming. However, during Netflix’s pursuit of Warners, Sarandos changed his messaging ultimately championing a 45-day theatrical window (though Netflix has yet to actually demonstrate that type of distribution with any of their titles in a 2,000-4,000 location play pattern). Perhaps, with big event movies such as Greta Gerwig’s Narnia (which already has Imax theaters at Thanksgiving) and the Brad Pitt Once Upon a Time in Hollywood sequel, The Adventures of Cliff Booth, their tune will change.
Disney among the major studios is already leading the charge post Covid with an exclusive theatrical window of 60 days to PVOD (and even longer to streaming, sometimes 90 to 100 days plus). Their version of day-and-date during the pandemic was charging a surcharge to Disney+ subscribers for movies such as Mulan, Jungle Cruise, Cruella, and Black Widow to name a few; the latter getting them into a legal squabble with Marvel star Scarlett Johansson about lost potential monies in a theatrical window crunch.