'The Fall Guy's Poor Box Office Highlights Inconvenient Truths About PVOD

The shortened windows are a symptom, not a cause, of the challenges movies have faced in the streaming era, but extra at-home revenue can justify theatrical exhibition.

Just 19 days after its domestic theatrical debut, Universal’s The Fall Guy is now available on PVOD and (at a glance) dominating most of the charts. The David Leitch-directed film’s “early” at-home release, although it’s still in theaters, is the latest lightning rod in the ongoing (primarily online) debate as to whether shorter theatrical windows are doing more harm to already struggling theaters. Did the $125 million Ryan Gosling/Emily Blunt action comedy, which will likely finish with around $165 million at the worldwide box office, underwhelm because of the foreknowledge that it would be available at home in just 2.5 weeks? Or is the shrunk theatrical window just the latest excuse for the grim truth that audiences don’t want to see the kind of theatrical movies – in theaters – that they claim to want?

But before that, two big contextual notes: First, “premium video on demand” is not the same as “free to stream if you subscribe to a given platform” but instead paying $20 for 48 hours of digital access. Second, Comcast has released almost every theatrical title on PVOD in 19-21 days after theaters, save for a couple of preconditioned exceptions (including Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and M. Night Shyamalan’s Old), since late 2020, with the handful that opened above $50 million (The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Jurassic World Dominion, etc.) getting 31-day windows. The Fall Guy's availability as of this past Tuesday is standard practice for the studio, not a panicked “break glass in case of emergency” move following a mediocre box office result.