AMC and Universal agree to shorten the theatrical window for films to 17 days, or 3 weekends, before Universal can release them onto premium on-demand platforms
Films only have to be in theaters for three weekends now before going to digital platforms — AMC Theaters and Universal …
The VergeChaim Gartenberg
Context & Ripple Effects
The deal ends a standoff that began in March, when Universal moved films still in theaters straight to $19.99 online rentals, outrunning the roughly 90-day theatrical exclusivity that had held for decades. Studios had been circling this move for years — back in 2017, Warner Bros., Universal, Apple, and Comcast were reportedly exploring rentals within weeks of theatrical release — but no chain had signed off until now.
For AMC, the concession comes from a position of diversification: it already runs its own iTunes-like On Demand store renting and selling films directly, so a shorter window turns the chain into a participant in home distribution rather than purely its casualty.
First-order effects
Universal gains a guaranteed fast lane to premium on-demand after three weekends instead of negotiating each release against the old ~90-day norm, while AMC trades exclusivity length for certainty during a collapse in theater attendance.
Every other major studio now faces a reopened negotiation with exhibitors, since Universal has broken the unified front that kept windows long.
Second-order effects
Rival theater chains must either match AMC's terms or hold out on a 90-day window that studios can increasingly route around, shifting bargaining power toward whoever controls early digital access.
Premium on-demand at the ~$19.99 price point Universal tested in March becomes a legitimate first-run channel competing with ticket sales, pressuring how studios price and sequence every wide release.
Third-order effects
If 17 days becomes the template, theatrical exclusivity stops being an industry norm and becomes a contract term negotiated film-by-film, weakening the structural guarantee that sustained the multiplex business.
Exhibitors are pushed further toward becoming multi-sided distributors — subscriptions like AMC Stubs A-List, owned on-demand storefronts, and in-theater experiences — rather than gatekeepers of a single window.
The trend: Theatrical exclusivity windows are collapsing from months to weeks as studios convert premium on-demand from an emergency workaround into a standing release channel.
After covering unsuccessful efforts to make this happen for 14 years as an entertainment industry reporter, I thought it would never happen. But I didn't count on a global pandemic literally decimating the cinema industry. https://www.wsj.com/...
With the 17 day precedent, I wonder if this changes how conversations between AMC and Netflix will go, if Netflix wants that partnership. Its talent certainly does. https://twitter.com/...
Just a reminder to other studios out there cough cough Warner Bros. and Disney cough cough, I will pay you $50 for Tenet and Mulan and Black Widow so I can watch it at home. Please.
We live in an age of hyperbole but the ramifications of this are truly massive. AMC, the largest theater chain in the US, is cutting a deal to get a percentage of PVOD, the biggest threat to their business before the pandemic. The biggest dinosaur just hopped on the meteor. https…
Huge and pathbreaking! @AMCTheatres & @UniversalPics have sorted out their differences & signed a historic deal allowing a new film to release on VOD, 17 days after its theatrical release! It means theatrical to VOD has come down in US from 90 to 17 days! Is it the ‘new norm’? ht…
The end of movie theaters? @AMCTheatres and @Universal agree to reduce from months to 17 days the length of time films appear in cinemas before being released for home viewing https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ
Suggests to me that the pandemic has dramatically shifted the balance of power between studios and theaters. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ ... via @thr
Other question I have is, if Universal and AMC split the PVOD sales, and Universal also splits some of that with Apple or Amazon or whoever: do you add a rental platform via a Peacock? Completely bypass the third party rental here? Or Amazon/Apple user base too big to not be on?
This also feels like a big acknowledgment from the biggest theater chain that the concept of “exclusive first windows” is rapidly shifting. It's not gone, but it has to change.
I hesitate to say whether this is bad or fine; we're missing a wealth of information about the agreement and the nuances of it, as well as how it affects other studios and exhibitors. https://twitter.com/...
I don't know how I feel about this. One on the one hand, it undermines the immediacy of cinemas and will make them even more reliant on blockbuster product, as this may erase mid-budget films. On the other hand, if a film flops, VOD would be best for it. https://variety.com/...
Today is the day the movie theater-studio industrial complex finally died. 17 day window is short enough that most people will just wait to watch at home. (Of course all of this is moot right now given COVID.) https://www.wsj.com/...
All it took was a worldwide pandemic for movie theaters to stop being petulant children and get with the times. Now if they could just make the moviegoing experience more appealing, they just might get people back into theaters. https://twitter.com/...