When do new movies go to streaming? How release windows work
When do new movies go to streaming? Average release windows, what each studio now promises, and why the gap between cinemas and streaming is growing again.
Why it matters
The time between a film's cinema opening and its arrival at home is getting longer again, and the rules now differ by studio, so the wait depends on who released the film.
Most new Hollywood films now become available to rent at home about five to six weeks after they open in cinemas, and arrive on subscription streaming services about three months after. After years of shrinking, that gap is starting to grow again.
Quick answer: For a wide release in North America, the average wait before a film could first be rented or bought at home was 39 days in 2025, and the wait for subscription streaming was 95 days, according to research firm Omdia. Disney waits longest. From 2026 several studios have promised at least 45 days in cinemas, and one of them is now bound to it by a court.
The reason this matters now: on 6 October 2026 Paramount Skydance completed its roughly $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. Under a settlement approved by a federal judge on 30 September, the combined company must keep films that count toward its release quota in cinemas for at least 45 days and off subscription streaming for at least 90. That is the first time a major studio’s release window has been written into a court order.
This is an analysis piece. It sets out the rules each studio has announced, what the data shows, and the arguments on each side, with views attributed to the people who hold them.
Four terms that decide when a film reaches you
The industry splits a film’s life into “windows,” periods when it is available in only certain places. Four matter to viewers.
- Theatrical window: the time a film plays only in cinemas.
- PVOD (premium video on demand): an early digital rental or purchase, usually priced well above a normal rental, that opens when the theatrical window closes.
- TVOD (transactional video on demand): the standard rental or purchase window on stores such as Apple TV or Amazon. For many films, PVOD is simply the first TVOD release.
- SVOD (subscription video on demand): when a film joins a subscription service such as Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock or Paramount+.
When a studio promises “45 days,” it means the theatrical window, before any paid home release. The subscription debut comes later and is usually set separately.
How 90 days shrank to 17, and is now creeping back
Before the pandemic, the standard theatrical window in the US was about 90 days, according to the Associated Press. Cinema chains insisted on it. The closures of 2020 broke that arrangement within months.
- 2019: Most major US cinema chains require about 90 days of exclusivity before a film is released for home viewing.
- Summer 2020: Universal agrees a deal with AMC, the largest US chain, that lets its films go to premium rental after as little as 17 days.
- 16 Nov 2020: Universal signs a similar deal with Cinemark: 17 days (three weekends) as standard, and 31 days (five weekends) for films that open with $50 million or more.
- 27 Feb 2026: Paramount Skydance announces a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery after Netflix, which had agreed to buy the studio in December 2025, declines to raise its offer.
- 12 Mar 2026: Universal raises its minimum to 31 days (five weekends) for 2026 releases and 45 days (seven weekends) from 2027. Its specialty label, Focus Features, stays at 17 days.
- 30 Sep 2026: A federal judge in California approves the settlement between Paramount and 12 state attorneys general, including the 45-day and 90-day terms.
- 6 Oct 2026: The Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery deal closes. The combined company is named Skydance Corporation.
- 12 Feb 2027: Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, made for Netflix, opens in cinemas worldwide. It reaches Netflix on 2 April 2027.
What each big studio has promised
As of October 2026, the main US studios fall into three groups: one bound by a court, one bound by its own public pledge, and the rest deciding film by film.
| Studio | Minimum time in cinemas | Other terms |
|---|---|---|
| Paramount and Warner Bros. (Skydance Corporation) | 45 days | Qualifying films kept off subscription streaming for 90 days, under a court-approved settlement |
| Universal | 31 days (five weekends) in 2026; 45 days (seven weekends) from 2027 | Focus Features keeps a 17-day minimum |
| Disney | No published minimum | Averaged about 62 days to first home rental in 2025 |
| Netflix | Set film by film | Narnia: in cinemas 12 Feb 2027, on Netflix 2 Apr 2027 |
Source: TheWrap and Associated Press reporting on studio announcements; court settlement terms reported by TheWrap; Omdia data via Celluloid Junkie; Netflix Tudum. As of 26 October 2026.
The Narnia case is the one to watch. Netflix originally planned a two-week run on IMAX screens over Thanksgiving 2026, then moved the film to February 2027 with a wider cinema release. The gap between its cinema opening and its Netflix debut is now about seven weeks, against two weeks in the original plan.
What the data shows since 2021
Omdia, a technology research firm, tracks how long wide releases in North America take to reach each window. Its figures show two trends moving in opposite directions.
| Film year | Days to first home rental | Days to subscription streaming |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 27 | 128 |
| 2022 | 38 | 110 |
| 2023 | 39 | 104 |
| 2024 | 36 to 37 | about 98 |
| 2025 | 39 (provisional) | 95 (provisional) |
Source: Omdia, as reported by Dark Horizons (May 2025) and Celluloid Junkie (June 2026). Averages for wide releases in North America. Reports give slightly different 2024 figures.
The rental window has settled in the high 30s since 2022. The subscription window has fallen every year, by more than a month in total. In other words, the cinema-only period is holding steady or growing, while the time a film spends as a paid rental before reaching a subscription service is getting shorter.
Disney is the outlier. Omdia put its average wait before first home rental at 61.6 days in 2025, the longest of the major studios.
Omdia’s senior principal analyst, Charlotte Jones, presented the 2025 figures at a cinema industry summit in June 2026. “It’s certainly very clear that the sentiment is now shifting towards backing longer windows,” she said, according to Celluloid Junkie.
Why studios shortened windows in the first place
The short answer is that the studios became streaming companies. Universal’s parent owns Peacock, Disney owns Disney+, Warner Bros. owned HBO Max, and Paramount owns Paramount+. A short window lets a studio market a film once and sell it twice, in cinemas and then at home while the advertising is still fresh.
Premium rental also became a business in its own right. When Universal lengthened its windows in March 2026, it kept Focus Features on 17 days because, the studio said, Focus benefits from using cinema releases to drive viewers to premium rentals, according to TheWrap.
Netflix took the purest form of that view. Its co-chief executive, Ted Sarandos, called long windows “not consumer friendly” in December 2025, TheWrap reported. A month later, while Netflix was still trying to buy Warner Bros., he told a Senate hearing that Warner films would keep a 45-day window under Netflix ownership. Paramount’s higher bid made the promise moot. Paramount had made the same 45-day pledge in its own bid, and the overlap is telling: by early 2026 a bidder for a major studio was expected to offer cinemas a 45-day floor to win support for the deal.
The case cinema owners make for 45 days
Michael O’Leary, president and chief executive of Cinema United, called on studios at the CinemaCon trade show in 2025 to adopt a minimum of 45 days of cinema exclusivity. He has repeated the call since and welcomed Universal’s March 2026 change as “a positive and welcome step.”
The cinema owners’ argument is about habit. If audiences learn that a film will be on their television within a few weeks, they have less reason to go out. A predictable, longer floor, they argue, gives audiences a reason to see a film while it is new and lets cinemas plan.
The studios’ counter-argument is that one rule does not fit every film. Kevin Wilson, head of distribution at Amazon MGM Studios, told the same June 2026 summit that the industry needs a “middle ground” that works for both studios and cinemas. A family blockbuster can play for months. A small drama may do most of its cinema business in two weekends and then need the marketing push of a home release. That is the logic behind Universal’s carve-out for Focus, and behind studios setting windows title by title.
What most explainers get wrong about windows
They treat “the window” as a single number. It is at least three, and each studio sets them separately. A film can honor a 45-day cinema window and still reach a subscription service sooner than one with a 31-day window, depending on deals with streamers.
They also treat the studio pledges as equal. They are not. Universal’s and Paramount’s original pledges were voluntary and can be changed by the next chief executive. The Skydance Corporation commitments are part of a five-year consent decree, with a $30 million penalty for each film by which the company misses its release quota of at least 30 cinema releases a year in the first two years and 32 a year in the following three. For the next five years, the combined Paramount and Warner Bros. has a window it cannot quietly shorten.
And they assume the trend only runs one way. The numbers above show that it reversed. The window decisions announced in 2026 by Universal, Paramount and Netflix all lengthened the time in cinemas. Universal kept the three-weekend model only for Focus.
How to estimate when a new film will reach your home
- Check the studio: the distributor is listed on the poster and in the trailer. Warner Bros. and Paramount films now get at least 45 days in cinemas; Universal films at least 31 days in 2026 and 45 from 2027.
- Count from the opening date: add the minimum window to the date the film opened in cinemas in your country to find the earliest possible rental date.
- Allow longer for big openings: under Universal’s 2020 deal, films opening above $50 million got 31 days rather than 17, and Disney’s films averaged about two months in 2025.
- Expect subscription streaming later: on average about three months after release in North America, and at least 90 days for qualifying Paramount and Warner Bros. films.
- Check outside the US separately: release dates and windows differ by country, so a film can be on rental in one market while still in cinemas in another.
What to watch next
Three dates will show whether the longer-window trend holds. Universal’s 45-day minimum takes effect with its first 2027 releases. Narnia opens on 12 February 2027 and reaches Netflix on 2 April, a test of how Netflix handles a full cinema release. And the 99th Oscars on 14 March 2027 will show again how streamers use short qualifying runs, explained in our guide to how film awards season works.
The number to keep in mind is 45. It has become the industry’s working floor for time in cinemas, and for the first time one of the biggest studios is legally required to meet it.
