Pay 1 Windows in 2024 Show No Platform Relies on One Film Slate
Near the end of last year, A24 and Warner Bros. Discovery struck a deal to bring the prestige distributor’s new films exclusively to HBO and Max after their theatrical runs.
Previously, A24 films went to Showtime first, but the expiration of its other content deal with Apple TV+ for original streaming films presented a new all-in-one opportunity A24 couldn’t pass up.
It was also a way for Max to beef up its catalog after a serious loss.
2022 was the last year in which new films from 20th Century and Searchlight went straight to Max alongside Hulu, as Disney chose to bring all of its theatrical slates fully in house. This preceded Disney’s efforts to take full control of Hulu by buying back Comcast’s stake last year, and Disney has since begun integrating the Hulu catalog into Disney+.
Looking at other Pay 1 arrangements, it’s evident that no platform is confident enough in its wholly owned film content to lure and maintain subscribers, as just about every streamer gets films directly from an additional theatrical slate.
This is true even for old-school streamers, as Netflix gets major studio fare from Sony Pictures and additional prestige films from Sony Pictures Classics, while Prime Video offers rotating selections of Universal and Paramount titles, alongside Amazon’s MGM films after they’re done on MGM+. Disney’s streamers eventually get Sony titles, too, and Hulu is also where art-house distributor Neon’s films stream after their theatrical runs.
That said, this isn’t a perfect system. Licensing out titles helps offset the seemingly inescapable losses associated with SVOD but also creates gaps in streaming libraries. This is why Universal had to lock down an additional deal with Lionsgate to get the latter’s films on Peacock after their time on Starz, as Universal’s complex deals see films from its main slate and Focus Features go all over the place after arriving on and returning to Peacock.
None of this changes the fact that most films still hit PVOD before streaming. Indiewire pinned the average theatrical window for studio films at 37 days in 2023, though there’s a lot of inconsistency. While Universal’s “Oppenheimer” lasted 122 days in theaters only, its “Mario” adaptation, which made more money at the box office, was already on PVOD after 41 days.
