Average Home-Video Release Window Shrunk 21% in Past Decade, Says IHS

The average window between a film’s theatrical debut and its release on physical home-video products has declined by more than four weeks in the past decade, IHS said in a Friday report. In 2015, theatrical titles needed only 118 days on average before their release on physical media, compared with a 149-day window in 2005 -- a nearly 21 percent decline, IHS said. “Movies are arriving on discs 31 days sooner than a decade ago, despite a wider industry assertion that theatrical to home video window has remained largely unchanged,” said the researcher. The theatrical to digital download window, IHS said, has shrunk even faster -- by nearly 29 percent in just the past four years. IHS sampled 313 titles released in 2015 on digital formats, and of those, 25 percent were available for digital purchase day-and-date with their physical street date, it said. More than 60 percent were available for digital download an average of 24 days sooner than their respective physical video street date and an average of 97 days after opening in cinemas, it said. The remaining 14 percent were available on digital formats the same day as theaters or shortly before opening in theaters, it said.