Sources: movie studios, including Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures, in talks with Apple, Comcast to offer movie rentals within weeks of theatrical release
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 act of a negotiation that has been running since at least late 2016, when Apple was reported in [[a:878940|talks with studios to pull iTunes releases forward to two weeks after a film's theater debut]]. The intervening attempt to break the window — Sean Parker-backed Screening Room's $50 day-and-date home-rental pitch — went nowhere, but the studios kept the idea alive and have now widened the buyer set to include Comcast alongside Apple.
What changed is the counterparty structure: rather than one tech platform, Warner Bros. and Universal are negotiating with two distribution giants at once, while exhibitors respond by demanding a 10-year revenue split — an attempt to convert a collapsing exclusivity window into a contractual annuity. The stakes run both directions: years later, Apple would be reported exploring its own theatrical distribution unit, with Warner Bros. sharing F1 box-office revenue, showing how entangled these players become once windows blur.
First-order effects
- Theater chains' demand for a 10-year revenue split directly targets the studios' core concession — if early rentals proceed without it, exhibitors lose exclusive control of a film's highest-margin opening weeks.
Second-order effects
- Comcast's dual position — negotiating as a rental platform while affiliated with major content — pressures rival distributors like Apple to match whatever window terms emerge, accelerating price competition for early-access rights.
Third-order effects
- If the talks hold, the exclusive theatrical window stops being an industry default and becomes a negotiated term per title, shifting structural power toward whoever controls the home platform — a trajectory consistent with Apple's later move into theatrical distribution itself.
The trend: Movie distribution is moving from fixed theatrical exclusivity toward per-title, platform-negotiated release windows, with tech platforms and studios converging on each other's turf.