In all the arguments about Netflix’s potential acquisition of Warner Bros. Pictures, a lot of the criticism surrounds that of theatrical windows and the potential of Netflix shrinking them.
In the early 2000s, the time between a film’s theatrical and home video release was around 90 days. With many films, the gap between their cinema and physical media release still adheres to that.
What’s changed, of course, is digital. Especially in more recent years, the emergence of PVOD – the high-priced sell-through or rentals of titles much closer to a film’s release date.
One of the biggest events to impact this was Universal’s agreement with exhibitors during the pandemic – one that is still followed by them and some others today. That allowed Universal to bring titles opening under a certain box-office threshold to PVOD platforms after as little as 17 days. Those films went over the threshold; the gap was 31 days.
Since the pandemic, the release patterns have generally varied from studio to studio, with Disney being the one with the longest gaps of around 60 days. Others adhere to 30 or 45-day windows.
Today, I collected and analysed the data of 182 U.S. theatrical releases in 2025, and their corresponding PVOD releases, in the window from January to mid-November. Day-and-date releases were not included, nor were Netflix releases, so movies like “Frankenstein,” “A House of Dynamite”, or “Wake Up Dead Man” didn’t impact the sample.
The result was that the average time between a film’s theatrical run and its digital home release currently clocks in at around 32-33 days. If Netflix titles and day-and-date releases were taken into account, the number would likely be closer to 30-31 days.
The two most common release dates by far were Day 19 with 36 releases and Day 33 with 43 releases – the two dates accounting for 43% of the total sample.
The next most common was the Day 26 mark with 19 releases, the Day 22 mark with 14 releases, the Day 39 mark with 11 releases, and the Day 61 mark with 8 releases. 70% of releases, spanning both wide and limited ones, took place less than five weeks (35 days) after a film hit cinemas. Only five films went past the 61-day mark.
Netflix has generally adhered to a 14-21 day gap between its theatrical and streaming releases, though Netflix is technically an SVOD service and has no PVOD-style element incorporated into its service (ala the short-lived ‘Premier Access’ on the Disney+ service).
