As Anora wins the Best Picture award at the DGA Awards, Sean Baker makes a public call for 90 day theatrical windows.
Sean Baker’s Anora (pictured) won the Best Picture at the weekend’s DGA ceremony and its director decided to use the occasion to issue a rousing call to arms to all of his peers, publicly rallying them to hold out for increased theatrical windows.
Baker accepted his prize before saying, “Let’s do whatever we can do to expand that theatrical window. Demand it. We make films for the big screen. Let’s expand it to at least 90 days […] Let’s get it back to the way it used to be.”
The global pandemic and lockdowns that ran through 2020 and 2021 still cast their shadow over the film industry in several ways, not least those fabled 2019 theatrical admission levels that studios and cinema operators look back at so wistfully. Another major change is the shortening of theatrical windows, with such studios as Universal erasing the long-standing 90-day theatrical exclusivity window and sticking films onto premium video on demand (PVOD) sometimes after just a couple of weeks in cinemas.
Take Wolf Man, for example. Universal’s revamping of the classic werewolf tale released in US cinemas on 17th January and was already available for viewing in the home by 4th February. While it might well earn Universal a few more quid in the short term, the slow erosion of film’s standing as something of value is at stake here.
Remember The Fall Guy's 17 day stint in cinemas before appearing on PVOD? It was a good film that tried to feel a little different from its contemporaries but never had much of a chance to find its audience, undermined by an undignified shove onto digital.
Go back just under a century to Great Depression-era America, and the film industry was one of the few sectors actually growing amid a terrible recession. A trip to the movies being seen as a form of affordable escapism. But as studios continue to undercut the value of the theatrical experience, the damage to the industry’s lifeblood – the films themselves – goes beyond the slightly healthier-looking balance sheets.
Another Universal film to get a hasty PVOD release was Wicked, even though the film has done great business in cinemas. Despite still playing in cinemas now, weeks and weeks after its December release, Universal opted to undercut further theatrical business and release it onto PVOD just four weeks later.
In an era where films sit on tiles next to TV shows and videogames, being lined up as ‘content’, Baker’s rallying cry (as reported by World Of Reel) is a timely one. As well as preserving the future of the theatrical industry, that 90 day window is essential in making films feel special and anticipated, rather than just another tile to be flicked past. Hopefully, his fellow directors will respond and we’ll see a change for the better this coming year.
