Pre-studio era film release Prior to the decline of the
Motion Picture Patents Company (Edison Trust) in 1915, there were two main forms of film distribution:
states rights and
roadshow. Under the states rights system, films were sold on a local, territorial basis. The local salesperson would then play the film as often as they desired in an attempt to make as much profit as possible. Film copyright holders would sell rights of a movie directly to the theater or franchise salesperson, typically on a
foot-by-foot basis for 10 cents a foot.
Standard release The standard release routine for a movie is regulated by a business model called "release windows". The release windows system was first conceived in the 1970s as a strategy to keep different instances of a movie from competing with each other, allowing the movie to take advantage of different markets (cinema, home video, TV, etc.) at different times. In the standard process in 1979 in the United States, a movie was first released in
movie theaters (theatrical window), then released to
pay television for a short run before being re-released in movie theaters. It then returned to pay television before being made available for
free-to-air television. Currently, after a movie is released in movie theaters, it is released on home video and VOD services. After an additional period, it is usually released to pay television, and then made available for free-to-air television. and disapproval, with director
M. Night Shyamalan claiming it could potentially destroy the "magic" of moviegoing. Cinema owners can be affected if they have to share their opportunity window, especially at the beginning of the movie lifecycle, since, according to Disney, about 95% of all box office tickets for a film are sold within the first six weeks after initial distribution. Among relevant simultaneous release attempts are
Bubble (2006) by Academy Award-winning director
Steven Soderbergh,
EMR (2005) by James Erskine & Danny McCullough, and
The Road to Guantanamo (2006).
Shrinking of the theatrical window Between 1967 and 1974, the average theatrical window in the United States between a film's theatrical release and its showing on TV was just over five years. By 1979, with the advent of pay television, films were normally made available to pay television in the United States one or two years after theatrical release. The window between theatrical release and free-to-air television in the United States at the time was normally three years. By 1983 in the United States, the theatrical window before a film would be made available to other media, (at the time, firstly cable or pay TV) was around a year. In France, with the rise of home video, a law was created to give a theatrical window of one year before a film was made available to home video with it then being available to pay television then free-to-air television two or three years later. By 1985 in the United States, the theatrical window before a film was released on home video was normally four to six months, depending on the performance of the film at the box office. Films in the US were then available for pay-per-view four months later In early 2010,
Disney announced it would be putting out the DVD and Blu-ray versions of
Tim Burton's
Alice in Wonderland 14 weeks after the movie's release date (instead of the then usual 17) in order to avoid competition from the
2010 World Cup. but later reconsidered their position before the movie was released. As of 2019, most major theater chains mandated an exclusivity window of 90 days before release on physical home video and rental availability, and 74–76 days before
digital sell-through.
Major film studios reportedly pushed to shrink the theatrical window in an attempt to make up for the substantial losses in the
DVD market suffered since the 2004 sales peak. These attempts have encountered the firm opposition of
theater owners, whose profits depend solely upon attendance and therefore benefit from keeping a movie available on their screens.
Digital Download, Transactional Video on Demand and Subscription Video on Demand On November 11, 2002, MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. banded together to sell or rent movies online through a site called
Movielink. In September 2006,
Amazon.com and
Apple began offering digital downloads, and
Microsoft followed in November.
YouTube joined in 2010, and
Google Play in 2011. The recent trend has been for films to be released to Transactional Video on Demand before they come to DVD or Blu-Ray.
Amazon Prime Video (originally Amazon Unbox) began showing movies on their subscription service from September 2006.
Netflix switched over from its DVD rental service to a subscription video on demand service in early 2007.
Apple TV+ and
Disney+ were launched in November 2019, and show movies there. In July 2010
Netflix secured a deal with
Relativity Media in which the latter agreed to distribute a number of major movies to its subscription service before
Pay TV. Producers of relatively
smaller-budget movies are also utilizing new release strategies. In 2009, the movie
The House of the Devil premiered on VOD systems on October 1, and received a
limited theatrical release one month later. In August 2010, it was announced that the movie
Freakonomics would be released on video on demand on September 3, one month before its theatrical release. The British
sci-fi movie
Monsters has also undergone the same release timetable. After
Netflix bought the worldwide distribution rights to
Beasts of No Nation, the film was simultaneously released theatrically and online through its subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service on October 16, 2015. In late 2018, five of the major Hollywood studios, including
Universal and
Warner Bros., identified that they were working on an agreement that would see certain movies receive a premium video-on-demand release within weeks of their theatrical premieres. Nothing came out of these discussions, and after
Disney bought 21st Century Fox, then Disney
CEO Bob Iger stated that the theatrical window is working for the company and they had no plans to adjust it.
COVID-19 pandemic influence During the
COVID-19 pandemic, all the
major studios broke the theatrical window due to widespread theatre closings and made several films available on home media shortly after their theatrical debuts, such as Universal releasing
The Invisible Man for rental 21 days after theatrical release,
Sony and Columbia Pictures releasing
Bloodshot for purchase 12 days after theatrical release, and
Disney releasing
Onward for purchase 15 days after theatrical release and streaming on
Disney+ 29 days after theatrical release.
Sonic the Hedgehog,
I Still Believe, and
The Invisible Man also became available for in-home on-demand viewing after a theatrical run shorter than usual in the wake of widespread theatre closures. In November 2020,
Warner Bros. announced it would release
Wonder Woman 1984 simultaneously in theaters and on
HBO Max, with theaters granted a higher 60% take of box office sales. In December 2020, Warner Bros. announced it would release its entire 2021 theatrical slate simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max for 30 days.
AMC Theatres CEO
Adam Aron criticized the plan. However, this would be short-lived, because in March 2021, it was announced that Warner Bros. would discontinue same-day releases in 2022, as part of an agreement the studio reached with
Cineworld (who operates
Regal Cinemas) and will instead use a 45-day exclusive release window for theaters. Most recently, the parent company has reached an agreement for a 17-day and a 31-day theatrical window with Universal Pictures and has agreed on a deal with Walt Disney Pictures to show its movies in U.S. and U.K. theaters. ==Other distribution methods==