For a studio that spent the pandemic years helping normalize the idea that a movie could hit home almost as quickly as it hit theaters, Universal Pictures just moved the line back toward exclusivity. The company will now keep new releases in theaters for at least five weekends starting immediately (via NYT), before expanding that floor to seven weekends in 2027—a sharp reversal from the studio’s pandemic-era 17-day policy.
Just a few short weeks after Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman warned that broken windowing had eroded “scarcity and exclusivity” and made it harder for original films to break through, at least some studio chiefs appeared to be listening. Rothman’s larger point was simple enough: teach audiences that a movie will be at home almost immediately, and theatrical urgency starts to collapse with it. Universal’s pivot does not restore the old 90-day order, but it is the clearest sign yet that one of the studios most responsible for compressing the window now sees real value in stretching it back out.
The change takes effect now, which means the first title to fall under the new policy is “Reminders of Him,” the Colleen Hoover adaptation opening this weekend. From there, the longer runway will cover the rest of Universal’s 2026 slate before the studio pushes things even further next year. Donna Langley, the NBCUniversal entertainment chair, said the company believed in “the primacy of theatrical exclusivity” and in working with exhibitors to support a healthier theatrical ecosystem. Whatever the diplomatic wording, the implication is harder-edged: the post-COVID rush to PVOD may have solved one problem while training audiences to wait out another.
There is one important carveout. Focus Features, Universal’s specialty arm within the broader NBCUniversal film operation, is not moving in lockstep with the mainline Universal Pictures slate and will continue to handle windows on a more flexible, case-by-case basis. “Hamnet” stayed in theaters for 99 days, while “Nosferatu” played for 58, which is its own reminder that Focus was never really built for a blunt one-size-fits-all policy in the first place. Universal still wants flexibility where the specialty market demands it. It just no longer seems interested in pretending that a barely three-week runway is enough for the broader slate.
The larger backdrop here is the business finally admitting what exhibitors and filmmakers have been saying for years: shorter windows did not just change release math, they changed audience habits. Universal’s old model made plenty of sense in the middle of crisis conditions, and it gave the studio a way to monetize titles quickly on premium VOD. But once that behavior calcified, the theatrical run itself started to feel less like an event and more like an optional first stop. That is exactly the kind of erosion Rothman was talking about, especially for anything that is not already franchise-proof.
Exhibitors are thrilled, which tells you how long they have been waiting for a signal like this. AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron praised Langley and called the decision “big news,” arguing it would have real ramifications for the entire movie ecosystem. He is right about the stakes, even if the enthusiasm is predictable. Universal is not blowing up the streaming era or returning Hollywood to 2019. But it is conceding something the industry has resisted saying plainly for too long: if you keep teaching people they can stay home, eventually they will.
