- Movies and shows are licensed rather than sold directly
- Pay television and video on demand are usually licensed before broadcast.
- Rights are increasingly granted to multiple platforms.
If, like me, you enjoy nothing more than watching a great new movie on a great home theater setup, you’ve probably asked this question more than once about an exciting new release: when is it coming to one of the best streaming services? sequences and what transmitter is it? are you coming to? And the answer is: it’s complicated.
In a simpler world, all movies would come to all streaming services. But of course, we live in a much more complicated world, which is why we write separate guides to cover the best movies coming out. netflixto disney plusto max.to main videoto Paramount Plus already Apple TV Plus.
So how do certain movies end up on certain streamers and who decides who gets what and when? Let’s find out.
How movies don’t sell
It is important to clarify what it means when we talk about movie releases. The films are not sold directly; In most cases, the companies that paid for them own them and like to keep it that way. What studios and their distributors do is sell licenses to show, sell, or stream movies in a certain way, in a certain location, for a certain period of time.
When your local megaplex shows Wicked, it hasn’t bought the movie; The cinema chain has purchased a license to show it in certain territories for a few weeks or months. Similarly, when Prime Video, Max or Paramount Plus offer a movie as part of their membership, the streamer has purchased a license that gives them the right to stream it, again, in certain territories for a set period of time.
In addition to being licensed to different companies in different parts of the world, movie licenses are also sold in various stages. Typically, a studio film will first play in theaters, be available digitally as pay-per-view or purchase-to-own, and then be available to stream.
Things are slightly different with TV shows, because of course there is no theatrical release. But unless a streamer makes a show in-house, it will be licensed in the same way as movies.
windows in the world
The film industry uses the term “release windows” to describe the different stages of a film’s release campaign. So you have the theatrical release window, the pay-per-view window, the streaming release window, etc.
The first release window is the original theatrical release. That used to be very long, usually three to six months or more, and then COVID happened. With theaters closed, studios have greatly reduced the theatrical release window or abandoned it altogether, turning instead to pay-per-view and streaming deals. And while COVID shutdowns are thankfully a thing of the past, much shorter theatrical windows remain.
Theater licenses are traditionally exclusive: generally, you won’t be able to rent or buy a movie anywhere while it’s still in its initial theatrical release. But the time between a movie hitting theaters and being available to rent, buy, or stream is much shorter than it used to be.
everything is speeding up
According indiewireThe average theatrical window for all major studio films in 2023 was just 37 days. There were outliers such as oppenheimerwhich spent 122 days as an exclusive release in theaters. But that one was really unusual. the same study Super Mario Bros. movie was more typical (and more profitable), ending its theatrical run after 41 days.
Indiewire analysis shows that Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour movie lasted 60 days, while Disney movies averaged 62 days, A24 movies 48 days, Paramount 42 days, and Sony 35 days. The shortest theatrical window? Five nights at freddy’swhich didn’t have one: it was available on Peacock from day one.
FNAF It was the third-largest opening for a horror film in cinema history, but its release is unlikely to be widely copied. The consensus is that simultaneous releases are more likely to cannibalize box office sales – especially in genres like horror, which teenagers like to watch together in theaters – and by missing out on the word of mouth that can turn modest hits into big ones. .
When the race is over
Once the theatrical run is over, it’s time for the release window which is important for streamers. That’s called Pay One Window and it’s when movies go from theaters to be seen at home.
During the Pay One window, the rights to show a movie are sold to two different markets: the PVOD/TVOD (paid/transactional video on demand, also known as pay-to-rent and buy-to-own) market and the SVOD market. which is short for streaming video on demand.
SVOD stands for streamers like Max, Prime, Netflix, and Hulu; TVOD means rental and purchases on Apple TV (but not Apple TV+), Google Play, Microsoft Store, Amazon (but not Included with Prime) and other digital stores.
It is always clearer if we use a real example, so let’s take Barbie. Barbie Theatrical release began in July 2023 and remained exclusive in theaters until September 2023, when it became available via TVOD platforms as a pay-to-rental and buy-to-own digital release. It was then available for Max subscribers to stream in December 2023.
When the Pay One window expires, it will be time to sell more licenses. This next release window is known as Pay One Window, and is when older movies are licensed, often to other streaming services other than during the Pay One period. For example, Sony has a Pay One deal with Netflix but a Pay Two agreement with all Disney platforms.
Of the two windows, the Pay One window is the more desirable: pent-up demand for big-name movies drives sales of new streaming subscriptions in a way that older movies don’t. But Pay Two Window licenses tend to be cheaper, and that means they allow streamers to expand their catalogs at a relatively low price.
Marital status: it’s complicated
Traditionally, Pay One Window deals were for up to 18 months and were exclusive, so if a movie went to Peacock, then it wouldn’t go to Amazon Prime for at least a year and a bit either. But modern film markets are much more confusing and, as Variety Most studios now reportedly license multiple streamers, either simultaneously or slightly staggered.
As if that weren’t complicated enough, some of the movie studios also own streamers and some of the streamers make movies. So, for example, Apple TV+ and Netflix make movies that hit theaters first but were made with streaming in mind; Disney, the company, owns the Disney studio and the Disney Plus streamer, so Disney movies will move to Disney Plus once their theatrical run ends. But Disney also owns 20th Century Fox and Searchlight, and those movies don’t simply end up on Disney+ or Disney-owned Hulu; They are usually licensed for HBO and Max as well.
That’s how Variety describes it. “Netflix gets major studio fees from Sony Pictures and additional prestige films from Sony Pictures Classics, while Prime Video offers rotating selections of Universal and Paramount titles, along with Amazon’s MGM movies once finished on MGM+. The streamers from Disney are also finally getting Sony titles, and Hulu is also the place where arts distributor Neon’s films stream after their theatrical run.”
As we said, it is complicated and it will become more and more so.
