Sources: movie studios, including Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures, in talks with Apple, Comcast to offer movie rentals mere weeks after theatrical releases
Studios are said focused on project despite exhibitor pushback — Theater chains are said to seek 10 years of revenue split
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second run at early-window home rentals in two years: Apple had already been reported in talks for iTunes access as soon as two weeks after a film's theater debut, and Sean Parker's Screening Room pitched studios on $50 day-and-date rentals earlier that year. What's new is the buyer set widening beyond Apple to Comcast, and the counter-move now on record — exhibitors seeking a 10-year revenue split.
The arc matters because it bends over time: Apple later reversed course toward prestige, planning traditional theatrical runs for its own films before they hit Apple TV+, and by 2025 was reportedly weighing a full theatrical distribution unit while Warner Bros. took a box-office share on F1. The 2017 talks are the moment the studios tried to pull the window open against exhibitor resistance.
First-order effects
- Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Apple, and Comcast would gain a rental product weeks after release, while theater chains — reportedly demanding a decade-long revenue split — become the direct veto point on whether any deal closes.
Second-order effects
- Exhibitors' pushback forces the studios to price the concession into the deal structure rather than the rental price, effectively paying theaters for cannibalized ticket revenue — the same trade-off the Screening Room's $50 model made explicit.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds toward shorter windows, the durable outcome visible in the later coverage is platform owners like Apple moving into distribution themselves, collapsing the studio-exhibitor-platform distinction and leaving theaters negotiating revenue splits rather than exclusive windows.
The trend: Movie release windows are being renegotiated between studios, platforms, and exhibitors, with each failed early-rental push pushing platforms like Apple closer to owning distribution outright.