Theater Chains Pout About Shorter Streaming Release Windows, Refuse To Show David Fincher’s Latest Film

Among the dated and dumb business concepts exposed as folly during the COVID-19 pandemic was the traditional Hollywood film release window, which originally involved a 90 day gap between the time a move appears in theaters and its streaming or DVD release (in France this window is even more ridiculous at three years).

Opposition to fiddling with this window is usually based on arguments that we need to protect the traditional film industry," though it's never been entirely clear why you'd protect traditional theaters at the cost of common sense, consumer demand, and a more efficient model. Especially when major theaters' refuse to adapt and often do things that make the brick and mortar film experience worse.

The debate has bubbled up once again last week as Cinemark and Regal have refused to show David Fincher's latest film: The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth." The Netflix film, a spin off featuring Brad Pitt's character from Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood," is leveraging just a two-week theatrical release window before heading to streaming.

Cinemark and Regal executives are big mad about it, leaving AMC the only theater chain the movie will be available in before it hits streaming on Christmas day:

The Cliff Booth' situation is an interesting one," Cinemark CEO Sean Gamble said Tuesday morning on the company's earnings call. We book all of our films on a case-by-case basis. In that particular situation, we always look at things through a long-term lens and how certain precedents and things we might do could affect longer-term industry dynamics. In this particular case, we don't believe the proposed release model is constructive for the broader theatrical ecosystem, and it's not aligned with what's of the greatest interest in our theaters."

It's understandable that traditional movie chains wouldn't be cheerleaders for their own demise. The problem, historically, is that they're not really doing the sorts of things you'd need to do to remain innovative and relevant in the face of disruption.

For example numerous chains have taken to showing even more advertisements alongside higher ticket prices

During pandemic lockdowns, you might recall how AMC executivesthrew a major temper tantrumbecause companies like Comcast/NBC began experimenting with more innovative movie release windows (with the added bonus of saving human lives). AMC execs were mad because the pandemic highlighted how the (then) 90-day gap between the time a movie appears in theaters and its streaming or DVD release was a dated, artificial, and increasingly purposeless construct in the age of cheap 85 inch 4K TVs.

Comcast (successfully) experimented with not only shortening the window, but eliminating it entirely. At the time, AMC Theatre CEO Adam Aronpouted incessantly, insisting that Comcast films would never again appear in AMC theaters, before ultimately having to retract the silly threat. AMC, interestingly, this time around, is the only major chain that will be showing Fincher's latest release.

For his part, Cinemark CEO Gamble has seemingly convinced himself that he can not only retain release windows, but grow them in the face of streaming dominance:

We're going to continue to see [the window] grow, especially since the commitments were a minimum of 45 days and beyond that many of the larger films continue to have windows of 60-plus days," he said. As we turn the corner into 2027, we're going to see that window continue to expand a bit, especially as additional studios join in."

Good luck with that.