The world is talking about Disclosure Day. They're talking about it a lot more than anyone anticipated in fact as it's currently overperforming at the box office, which ensures it's going to remain in the public consciousness for sometime now - and perhaps even emulate the success of spring's Project Hail Mary, which successfully proved that big-budget standalone sci-fi still has a place in movie theaters.
Steven Spielberg's long-awaited return to the sci-fi genre has yielded results for Universal Pictures, which may well lead to a long theatrical run if the picture mimics previous Spielberg fare and proves to have legs. As a result of this, however, it will probably be some time before Disclosure Day makes its presence felt on streaming - and by "streaming", we mean both PVOD services and the Peacock streaming platform.
Universal will likely delay Disclosure Day's digital streaming release date
As Disclosure Day is a Universal Pictures release, that means that after its theatrical run concludes, its eventual streaming home will be Peacock. But before it gets there, fans will be able to purchase it on PVOD platforms such as Apple TV, Fandango At Home, or the Prime Video Store. While that will come sooner, it might not be as soon as you're expecting.
As of March this year, Universal has adopted a new release format in which it gives all releases either a five-week or a seven-week theatrical window before it can be purchased for streaming at home. In the past, there was more variance depending on how the film performed but, with the pandemic now years in the past, Universal has made some significant changes.
Now, don't get us wrong: The two specific windows of time are indeed still down to how each respective movie performs. If any Universal movie is raking it in during its run on the big screen, the studio will not jeopardize cutting into that by releasing it to digital platforms early and will therefore hold it until after the seven-week window. On the other hand, if the film has exhausted its box office takings during its theatrical run, it will make its presence felt on PVOD services sooner - after the five-week window is up.
Taking that into account, Disclosure Day is looking like it will be the seven-week digital window. The Emily Blunt-led film is coming in above expectations and Spielberg films are notorious for having box office legs - meaning that they linger around and continue to add to their totals for sometime. With less competition for the older-skewing blockbuster category in the weeks ahead (Toy Story 5, Supergirl, and even July's Spider-Man: Brand New Day skew younger), there's a real chance that the alien sci-fi movie will strengthen its foundations with a solid, strong run.
With that in mind, we're predicting a digital release window of either Tuesday, July 28 or Tuesday, August 4. It all really depends on how well Disclosure Day performs and how much it manages to secure those legs into place. If the strong word-of-mouth allows it to maintain that better-than-expected momentum, we could be looking at longer. But it's unlikely that Universal would want to risk leaving it too late into August considering that this is shaping up to be the summer blockbuster we were promised.
Disclosure Day Peacock release date likely won't be until fall
The Peacock situation looks very different, however. As the digital release window will need some time to gather its own legs and momentum, you can rest assured that Universal Pictures will put some distance between it and the actual streaming release date. The film will likely be a big hit on both mediums, so there would be no point in risking overlapping those audiences by having the releases too close together.
As Forbes points out, Universal's new approach to the digital release date has upended all expectations for the Peacock window as there is very little evidence to go on based on lack of releases. And even prior to that it was pretty difficult to call when a new movie might arrive on that particular streamer. For example, Jurassic World Rebirth was released on Peacock almost a full five months after its theatrical debut. This is a movie that performed exceptionally well at the box office, with its streaming release date remaining a mystery throughout those five months. There's a real chance that this could happen here, too.
With that in mind, we should expect to see Disclosure Day arrive on Peacock around September time at the very earliest, with an October release much more likely. Again, Universal Pictures could switch things up and surprise us, but with a longer theatrical-only window and a digital release window to come after that, we wouldn't expect the movie on the platform until early fall.
Disclosure Day is in theaters now.
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