Additionally, MGM movies, including the upcoming James Bond movie ‘No Time to Die,’ will find a streaming home on the service.
Unlike WarnerMedia, ViacomCBS will not be breaking the theatrical window when its high-profile streamer Paramount+ launches on March 4.
Mission: Impossible 7 and A Quiet Place Part II, which are slated to be released in theaters Nov. 19 and Sept. 17, respectively, will debut on Paramount+ 45 days after their big-screen runs. Paw Patrol: The Movie is also on that list.
Meanwhile, new installments of Paranormal Activity and Pet Sematary will be among the productions that Paramount Pictures will be making directly for Paramount+.
Additionally, MGM movies, including the upcoming James Bond movie No Time to Die, will find a streaming home on Paramount+ thanks to a new expansion deal with MGM-owned Epix. This will allow the new service to have 2,500 movies in total at launch, including 700 titles from the Miramax library.
Epix will get a 90-day exclusive pay TV window for many Paramount theatrical titles before those titles become available on Paramount+ and Epix. More importantly for Paramount+, the streamer now gets access to titles not just from MGM but from other studios as well.
The original movies to be made for the streaming service hail, at this stage at least, from the Paramount Players division, which is focused on genre and properties told by contemporary voices.
In addition to a new Paranormal Activity, Paramount is developing a Pet Sematary origin story, jumping off from the Stephen King bestseller, with Jeff Buhler writing the script and Lorenzo di Bonaventura producing.
Also in the works is The In Between, a supernatural thriller to star Joey King and Kyle Allen and written by Marc Klein. Arie Posin will direct. The story tells of a teenage girl who, after surviving a car accident that took the life of her boyfriend, begins to believe he’s attempting to reconnect with her from the after world. King, Robbie Brenner and Andrew Deane are producing while Jamie King and Klein exec produce.
Theatrical windows have been a point of contention between studios and distributors for years, with studios wanting to shorten the time period that exists between a movie opening in theaters and home entertainment release. In the last year, the coronavirus pandemic has shattered what was the norm, a 90-day window, thanks to movie houses forced to close. This allowed for streamers to dominate, and with studios such as Warners and Universal launching their own services, windows began to crack and shatter.
Warners made its 2021 movie slate available both on HBO Max and in whatever theaters were open while Universal struck a deal to have its movies show up premium video on demand 17 days after. Paramount, meanwhile, has been selling its slate piecemeal to Amazon and Netflix.
