Theaters want you to wait longer to stream movies. Why that probably won’t happen
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An age-old debate has roared back to the forefront in Hollywood.
The so-called theatrical window has long been a hot topic for studios and movie theater owners. The discussion about how long a film is in movie theaters before it’s available for home viewing ramped up during the pandemic, when some studios dramatically shortened their windows before releasing movies for video on demand and streaming.
Then top theater lobbyist Michael O’Leary threw down an unexpected gauntlet.
Speaking before thousands of theater operators and film business professionals in Las Vegas, he called on the industry to establish a new standard: Make viewers wait longer — at least 45 days — to watch movies on the couch.
“A clear, consistent starting point is necessary to affirm our collective commitment to theatrical exclusivity and to provide clear expectations for movie fans,” said O’Leary, president and chief executive of the Cinema United trade group, in a speech this month at the CinemaCon trade convention at Caesars Palace. “We cannot sacrifice long-term success for short-term gain.”
Coming off a tough first quarter at the box office, studios showed off their best films, and in some cases, star-studded casts, at the annual CinemaCon trade show in Las Vegas.
After that, the topic dominated the convention — and industry chatter. From private conversations to public proclamations, everyone, it seemed, had an opinion on theatrical windows.
Before COVID-19, the wait was often as long as 90 days. Theaters would loudly protest any attempts to shrink windows, until the pandemic and resulting theater closures forced the issue. Chains such as AMC and Cinemark reluctantly accepted the new realities through deals with the studios. Now the average is around 30 days.
Andrew Cripps, Walt Disney Studios’ head of theatrical distribution, told an audience at CinemaCon that the company’s films were in theaters longer than those of any other studio, at an average of about 60 days.
Peter Levinsohn, chairman of global distribution at NBCUniversal Entertainment & Studios, noted during a panel discussion that there is now more competition for “discretionary time” than there was a few years ago.
“To think that it’s just the windowing issue, I think we, as an industry, need to be innovative and flexible to meet the audience where they are,” he said.
Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, said a day before O’Leary’s speech that “cost and windows can work for us or against us,” adding that “Sony will work with you on both” to the applause of the assembled movie theater owners.
But whether the industry will collectively decide on a baseline window — much less coalesce around O’Leary’s stated 45 days — is an open question, and many insiders have serious doubts.
Exhibitors contend that shorter windows cut into box-office profits by decreasing the number of casual moviegoers who look up showtimes on a whim and encouraging audiences to wait to watch a film at home.
Distributors counter that a one-size-fits-all window doesn’t work, especially for smaller and midbudget movies, and that once a film taps out its earning potential at the theater, moving it to home viewing helps profitability.
“It’s really tough to go backwards,” said one studio insider who was not authorized to comment. “I don’t want to say it won’t happen, but I think we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
For his part, O’Leary said he considered his 45-day window proposal a “reasonable and fair starting point” for further discussions. Any final decisions must be set by the studios, as windows are a market-based determination in the U.S., he said.
But O’Leary said he felt the time was right to broach the topic in a substantial way. The last half of 2024 felt like the first period of extended “normalcy” since the pandemic, the dual writers’ and actors’ strikes and industry upheaval rattled the movie business, he said. This year and 2026 will be strong, O’Leary said, which would give the industry breathing room to consider its future.
“There’s a recognition that we need to have a period of exclusivity,” O’Leary told The Times. “I do think you’ll see some windows get longer. The larger question is, can we get some kind of stability and uniformity so we’re creating consistent expectations for the moviegoing public?”
With no major tentpoles and few hits, local theater owners are feeling the pinch. So far, box office revenue is down 11% compared to the same period last year.
Movies generated $8.7 billion in box-office sales last year, down 3% from 2023 and far below pre-pandemic levels, prompting concerns that audiences’ habits have fundamentally changed. So far this year, revenue is down 5% from 2024.
There has been much debate over whether shorter theatrical windows cuts into box-office profits, and if so, how much.
A recent analysis by movie business data site the Numbers found that since 2021, films with an 18-day window generally underperformed at the box office, and that an early premium release for home viewing didn’t negatively affect their final theatrical earning potential — and in fact, the associated advertising may slightly boost their box-office sales.
However, films with a 21- to 44-day window lost $132 million in box-office revenue in total, though the effect on earnings decreased as the windows got longer, the report found.
“I don’t think this needs to be one side versus the other,” said Jackie Brenneman, founding partner at theater consulting firm the Fithian Group, who has researched windows. “I just believe that movie theaters could be much more important to [distributors’] bottom line all the way down the value chain if there was more exclusivity. I don’t think it will harm their streaming platforms to give those movies some time.”
Studio executives have said shortened windows may be part of why audiences haven’t flocked back to theaters since the pandemic.
But it’s not the whole story. Improving customers’ experience in theaters is a major piece of the puzzle, they say, and with so many more options for people to spend their time, it must be worth it for them to get out of their homes and into the theater. That could include daily deals, modernizing theater facilities, extended matinee pricing or even more limited trailers before films. On the studio side, quality films are a must.
“I’m happy to discuss windows, but believe it must be one part of a larger discussion about how to get people back to theaters more often,” Adam Fogelson, chair of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, told The Times.
And that is something O’Leary too can get behind.
“The consumer today is much more demanding than in the past,” he said. “They have many more options. We have to look at all of the pieces that go into making going to the movies a great experience.”
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