India's film industry debates ideal window: How long should movies stay in cinemas?

How long are you willing to wait to see Dhurandhar: The Revenge or Project Hail Mary, both released in March, on your favourite streaming platform? Eight weeks or four? That’s the question that filmmakers and theatre owners are grappling with.Stakeholders across India’s film business are even discussing whether a standard gap between a film’s release and its streaming debut would work for movies across languages.Universal Pictures set a precedent by mandating an eight-week theatrical window globally before its films can be streamed. Several theatre owners in south India are demanding that films follow the eight-week window for OTT premieres instead of four weeks now.Studio executives and cinema owners said the bigger issue is how box office performance eventually aids the sale of ancillary rights.

Many of them are of the view that the window should depend on the scale and theatrical potential of a movie because there is no point holding back a film that does not draw in viewers.“From the exhibition side, a longer and more predictable theatrical window is something the entire ecosystem benefits from,” said Ashish Misra, head of commercialization at Cinepolis India, which operates 449 screens in over 40 locations in the country. “When a studio like Universal extends its window globally, it reinforces what exhibitors have always maintained: theatrical revenue has room to grow when you give a film adequate time in cinemas.”However, the challenge with a purely movie-specific approach is that it creates uncertainty for the audience, Misra said.