The theatrical window is the most discussed metaphorical aperture in all of moviedom these days—take that, Overton!—as theater owners, streaming services, and the studios stuck between them continue to have very vocal arguments about how long movies should be expected to stay in theaters before being allowed to frolic and play on a streaming farm upstate. Concerns about Netflix’s purported unwillingness to abide by the window’s blend of social convention and contractual agreements was a major part in the messaging battles that the streamer waged when it was trying to buy Warner Bros. Discovery over the last year, and the general shrinking of the window since the COVID-19 lockdowns has been a big part of why theater owners have looked so hollow-eyed and miserable ever since.
Now, Universal is moving to position itself as The Studio That Actually Likes Movie Theaters, with Variety reporting that the studio has stated its intention to extend its pledge to theaters, keeping movies in place for a minimum of five weekends in 2026, and seven weekends in 2027. This is notable in so far as Universal often gets pointed to as one of the the studios that was most aggressive, back in 2020 and 2021, when it came to cutting the window down so it could get its films out of empty movie theaters, and onto packed streaming platforms, where they could maybe make a little money. Now, though—in a release environment that’s about to see it and Disney facing off against a newly merged Paramount and Warner Bros.—the studio is apparently looking to court theatrical audiences all over again.
It would be silly to suggest that this move is all about making Christopher Nolan happy—although the Oppenheimer director did make Universal a lot of money when he jumped ship from Warner Bros. over, basically, this exact issue a few years back. (His July feature The Odyssey will be one of the first movies subject to the new promise, alongside Reminders Of Him and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.) It’s also worth noting that the promise is a holding action as much as anything else; five weekends is only 28 days, whereas the seven-weekend pledge is just a bit higher than the current “standard” of 45. (Disney actually typically keeps its movies around for 60 days, longer than any of its peers—but, then, its movies are often the only ones making really serious money of late.) Even so, any promise not to get their throats cut probably sounds like music to the theaters’ ears at this point; AMC CEO Adam Aron gave a statement today in response to the news, saying, “Universal’s continued commitment to theatrical exhibition is extraordinarily beneficial to AMC and strengthens the entire theatrical ecosystem.”
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