Universal Pictures will now keep its new films in theaters for at least five weekends, a reversal from the studio’s previous policy of at least 17 days that was set during the pandemic.
The change takes place immediately, the studio said Thursday. That means it will apply to its newest film, the Colleen Hoover romance “Reminders of Him,” which is out in theaters this weekend. Other upcoming films include Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” which will be released in July.
“Our windowing strategy has always been designed to evolve with the marketplace, but we firmly believe in the primacy of theatrical exclusivity and working closely with our exhibition partners to support a healthy, sustainable theatrical ecosystem,” Donna Langley, chair of NBCUniversal Entertainment, said in an email to the New York Times, which first reported the news.
Focus Features, Universal Pictures’ specialty film arm, will keep its existing theatrical exclusivity policies, which vary on a case-by-case basis. Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet,” for instance, was in theaters for 99 days, while 2024’s “Nosferatu” played for 58 days. The minimum is 17 days.
That debate ramped up during the pandemic, when some studios shortened theatrical exclusivity periods in order to move films to release for video on demand or streaming.
Prior to the pandemic, those windows could be as long as 90 days. Now, the average is around 30 days.
Theater owners have argued that shorter windows cut into box office profits and train audiences to wait to watch a movie at home. Distributors have countered that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t necessarily work for smaller or mid-budget films, which may find a bigger audience via at-home viewing.
At last year’s CinemaCon trade conference, top theater lobbyist Michael O’Leary called on distributors to establish a minimum 45-day window, arguing there needed to be a “clear, consistent starting point” to set moviegoers’ expectations and affirm commitment to theatrical exclusivity.
The debate has become even more fierce as box office profits still have not recovered from the pandemic. Last year, theatrical revenue in the U.S. and Canada totaled about $8.87 billion, just 1.5% above 2024’s disappointing $8.74-billion tally.
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
If you are anything like me, you felt pretty out of sorts this week, not sure how to process the news that we are suddenly, apparently, a nation again at war. It can make the movies seem frivolous — a glorious, privileged sandbox to stick your head in — but it is also times like these that make them seem most vital and necessary: a place to focus energy and anxiety and maybe figure things out.
I was particularly struck by something New York Times critic Wesley Morris said in an appearance on the podcast “The Big Picture.” He was ostensibly talking about the downside of the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger news (“These people are f— with our dreams here” is how he began) but he landed on why movies matter in their moment, crucial to “how we develop as a culture, how we come to understand ourselves as a people, what this country ought to or should look like 40 years from now.”
The week’s big new release is Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride!” a sort-of adaptation of 1935’s “Bride of Frankenstein” starring Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale that is also very much its own thing, purpose-built to drive some people up a tree and already sharply dividing critics.
Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley in the movie “The Bride!”
(Niko Tavernise / Warner Bros. Pictures)
In her largely positive review, Amy Nicholson calls the movie “an unhinged scream,” adding, “‘Every wacky second, you’re well aware how perilously close it is to falling apart at the seams. This spiritual sequel to ‘Frankenstein’ is a romantic tale of obsession, possession and fantasy — adjectives that also apply to its filmmaker, Maggie Gyllenhaal, who expends massive quantities of energy jolting it to life. She succeeds by the skin of her teeth.”
I interviewed Gyllenhaal about “The Bride!” — including the significance of that exclamation point in the title. There have been numerous reports about a back-and-forth between the filmmaker and execs at Warner Bros. and Gyllenhaal didn’t shy away from talking about it. She had specific praise for Pam Abdy, co-chair and co-chief executive of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group.
“Something really alive was born, and I think the movie is better for the work that she and I did together,” Gyllenhaal told me. “I know that’s an unusual thing to say. I know that you have lots of people saying like, ‘Ah, the studio f— my movie up.’ That is not my experience. It’s really not.”
Louis Malle’s ‘…and the Pursuit of Happiness’
A scene from Louis Malle’s documentary “…and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
(Janus Films)
On Saturday, in a co-presentation of 7th House at the Philosophical Research Society and El Cine, the will be a 16mm screening of director Louis Malle’s 1986 “…and the Pursuit of Happiness,” a documentary made for television that explores the immigrant experience in America. The French-born filmmaker traveled across the U.S. interviewing recent arrivals from all walks of life.
Writing about the film in 1988, The Times’ Kevin Thomas called it “an often amusing and always insightful survey of the contemporary emigre experience. … an irresistible array of vignettes depicting cultural accommodation and assimilation in all its variety.”
I got on a video call this week with 7th House programmer Alex McDonald and El Cine founder Mariana Da Silva to talk about why this movie matters now.
The movie is streaming on the Criterion Channel right now. Why was it important to also put this movie in front of audiences right now?
Alex McDonald: I think Mariana and I are on the same page with this. I never let streaming or home video availability deter programming. Growing up, the theater was a holy place, a cathedral of congregation. I feel like these films are meant to be seen with an audience. And thankfully, I feel like our audience recognizes that as well, even if the film is out there. Particularly in our current moment, it’s a very prescient film and it’s one that will be all the more powerful within community.
Mariana Da Silva: I agree fully. One of the biggest things within our program is the communal aspects — just seeing the same people come back, that trust that develops with the audience. The best part I love about going to movie theaters is standing outside with people I maybe would never speak to and having a conversation about a film.
A scene from Louis Malle’s documentary “…and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
(Janus Films)
Do you respond to a movie like this as a sort of time capsule of how things were, or is it important to you that it is saying something about what’s happening right now?
McDonald: That’s something I’m very conscious of when I program repertory titles. When I program social, politically minded films, a lot of what I’m trying to do is to show that the issues within these things have not really changed — the ways in which things have progressed, the way in which we have regressed. Malle has such a humane view on all of these people in the film. He narrates but he doesn’t really editorialize. He just sort of observes, and in doing so, he’s making the most compelling argument for the richness of diversity and everything that these people contribute to this country, what they lose in assimilation, what they have to give up and what they bring. There’s a complexity to it. There are certainly dissenting voices in it and those resonate differently now.
It wasn’t perfect then. Obviously, there’s always been conflict, but I think there was an open-heartedness that has really shifted. And this is kind of a poignant reminder of what we need to try to get back to and recognize.
Da Silva: If we were able to have these conversations more openly, it would put us all on an even playing field. Humans are flawed. There’s been a lot of miseducation. In this moment, especially for me as somebody who is an immigrant, I feel like there’s so many people who I know who are so liberal and so aware, but then they don’t really understand the experience of the immigrant. And it’s not their fault in any capacity. They just haven’t been exposed to somebody like me before.
I think we can all come together on the things we celebrate, but we also need to be very open and come together on the things that we differ on too.
Points of interest
‘Good Night, and Good Luck’ in 35mm
George Clooney, left, and David Strathairn in the 2005 movie “Good Night, and Good Luck.”
(Melinda Sue Gordon / Warner Independent Pictures)
On Sunday afternoon at the Los Feliz Theater, as part of the American Cinematheque’s ongoing “Sunday Print Edition” series, there will be a 35mm screening of George Clooney’s “Good Night, and Good Luck,” introduced by The Times’ own Rosanna Xia.
Starring David Strathairn as pioneering television journalist Edward R. Murrow at the height of the McCarthy era, the film was nominated for six Oscars, including picture, director, actor and original screenplay.
As Kenneth Turan wrote in his original review, “‘Good Night, and Good Luck’ couldn’t be more unlikely, more unfashionable — or more compelling. Everything about it — its look, its style, even its sound — stands in stark opposition to the trends of the moment. Yet by sticking to events that are half a century old, it tells a story whose implications for today are inescapable. … The son of a TV anchorman, Clooney had the nerve to believe that a drama of ideas could be as entertaining as ‘Desperate Housewives.’ He insisted that a fight for America’s soul, a clash of values over critical intellectual issues like freedom of the press and the excesses of government, had an inherent intensity that would carry everything before it. And it does.”
‘Days and Nights in the Forest’ 4K restoration
An image from Satyajit Ray’s 1970 drama “Days and Nights in the Forest.”
(Janus Films)
Now playing at the Laemmle Royal in a new 4K restoration undertaken by the Film Foundation is Satyajit Ray’s 1970 “Days and Nights in the Forest.” In this examination of masculinity and class, four male friends drive from the bustling city of Kolkata to a rural village, mixing with the locals with volatile results.
In a special video introduction, Wes Anderson, a longtime admirer of Ray, admits he lifted a scene from “Days and Nights” for one of his own films — 2023’s “Asteroid City” — and says, “Anything by Satyajit Ray must be cherished and preserved, but ‘Days and Nights in the Forest,’ I think you will agree, is one of the special gems among his many treasures.”
‘Grease 2’ returns
Michelle Pfeiffer on the set of “Grease 2” in 1981.
(Vinnie Zuffante / Getty Images)
The Cinematic Void series at the American Cinematheque will show 1982’s pastiche musical “Grease 2” on Monday. Directed by choreographer-turned-filmmaker Patricia Birch, the film is, of course, a sequel to 1978’s megahit “Grease” but it is also very much its own thing. Largely dismissed on initial release, it has found a growing following over the years thanks in large part to its extremely engaging young cast, including an on-the-rise Michelle Pfeiffer.
In his initial review (more complementary than one might expect), Kevin Thomas wrote, “There’s so much youthful talent and vitality in ‘Grease 2’ that it’s depressing to discover it is so unblushing and relentless and paean to ignorance. … This is a pity, because Birch displays an organic sense of how to make dance evolve out of the kids’ everyday activities — converging en mass at Rydell High on the first day of school or having fun at the bowling alley. But Birch has scant opportunity beyond letting us know she cares for these ignoramuses, most of who seem likable enough beneath aggressively crude exteriors.”
Anti-fascist films at UCLA
Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer in the 1948 drama “Arch of Triumph.”
(Enterprise-UA / Photofest)
The ongoing series at the UCLA Film and Television Archive titled “From John Doe to Lonesome Rhodes: Anti-fascism from the Archive” hits a real stride this weekend for two nights of restored rarities. On Friday comes a restored 35mm print of 1948’s “Arch of Triumph,” directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer and Charles Laughton in a romantic drama of refugees in 1938 Paris. Also playing is Arthur Ripley’s rare 1944 emigree drama “Voice in the Wind.”
Much of the press around the film at the time of its release had to do with the challenge of bringing the racier aspects of the novel by Erich Maria Remarque (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) to the screen. As producer David Lewis told The Times’ Philip K. Scheuer, “I promise you that as Joan, Ingrid Bergman will set the town on its ear. They’ll never think of her as anything but sexy again.”
Saturday brings the world premiere of the 35mm restoration of Walter Comes’ 1947 “The Burning Cross,” in which a returning veteran is recruited into the KKK. John Reinhardt’s 1948 “Open Secret,” about antisemitism, will also play in a 35mm restoration.
The series concludes next week with a 35mm screening of Elia Kazan’s 1957 “A Face in the Crowd,” starring Andy Griffith in an examination of the dark side of populist politics and media manipulation.
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
This week we lost two towering figures with the deaths of Robert Duvall and Frederick Wiseman.
Duvall, who died at 95 at his home in Virginia, was known as an actor for roles in films such as “The Godfather,” “Apocalypse Now,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and countless more. As a director, his work included “The Apostle” and a handful of other projects.
Robert Duvall in the movie “Apocalypse Now.”
(CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images)
The movies team published a list of 10 of our favorite performances, including “Tender Mercies,” for which he won an Academy Award, as well as “Network,” “The Great Santini” and “Widows.”
Wiseman, who died at 96 in Cambridge, Mass., directed more than 45 documentary features beginning with 1967’s “Titicut Follies” on through 2023’s “Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troigros.” His work was known for its rigorous examinations of systems and institutions, giving viewers insights into why things functioned the way they did.
Frederick Wiseman, photographed at the Venice Film Festival in 2014.
(David Azia / Associated Press)
“The institution is also just an excuse to observe human behavior in somewhat defined conditions,” Wiseman told the Associated Press in 2020. “The films are as much about that as they are about institutions.”
Tribute screenings have already started to pop up in tribute to Duvall, with presumably more for both men on the way.
‘Sunshine’ in 35mm
Rose Byrne in the 2007 movie “Sunshine.”
(Alex Bailey / Twentieth Century Fox)
The collaboration between director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland has yielded an ongoing examination of societies in varying stages of collapse, lately in their recent revival of the “28 Years Later” series. Among their other works is 2007’s “Sunshine,” which, while seen as something of a disappointment on initial release, has only grown in esteem in the years since. The Academy Museum will screen the movie on 35mm Friday in the Ted Mann Theater.
In 2057, Earth is freezing as the sun has begun to die. An international crew of astronauts — including Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Rose Byrne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong and Chris Evans — are dispatched with the improbable mission of reigniting the sun. When they encounter another ship along the way, things begin to go very wrong.
In his review, Kenneth Turan wrote, “Not reflected in a synopsis is the way screenwriter Garland has made ‘Sunshine’ a thoughtful genre film, one with philosophical concerns about God, man and morality. It’s not for nothing that Icarus’ talking computer echoes Hal of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’ Garland and Boyle also have devoted time and effort to character psychology, to making the members of the Icarus’ crew into recognizable people and not Hollywood stick figures. … All these good things enable us to buy into ‘Sunshine’s’ story for a considerable span, creating a palpable tension that underlines that no one should feel safe in the far reaches of space.”
John Horn also wrote an extensive production story on the film. Referring to delays in the editing process, which caused a delay in the film’s release, Boyle said, “No director, unless they are contractually obligated, will ever go back and do a sequel set in space. When I finished it in January, I would have said no, it wasn’t worth it. Because I fell out with everybody. To make these movies, you have to be so uncompromising and scorch all of the ground in front of you.”
Slamdance Film Festival
Vondie Curtis-Hall in the movie “The Projectionist,” the opening night film of the 2026 Slamdance Film Festival.
(Slamdance Film Festival)
The Slamdance Film Festival has launched its second year in Los Angeles, running through Feb. 25 with screenings at the DGA, Landmark Sunset and 2220 Arts + Archives. The virtual edition of the festival will run from Feb. 24–March 6 on the Slamdance Channel.
The festival opened with the world premiere of Alexandre Rockwell’s “The Projectionist.” Starring Vondie Curtis-Hall along with Kasi Lemmons and Kevin Corrigan, the film tells the story of a lonely film projectionist confronting his past.
Rockwell, who, in 1992 won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance with “In the Soup,” lauded Slamdance as “a festival that embodies the vital spirit of independent film better than anywhere.”
Among other notable titles in this year’s program is “The Untitled Ruby Slippers Documentary” directed by Seth Gordon and Nikki Calabrese, the story of the theft and recovery of one of the most famous pieces of Hollywood movie memorabilia. Gordon’s “The King of Kong” premiered at Slamdance in 2007.
Points of interest
‘A Thousand and One’
Teyana Taylor in the movie “A Thousand and One.”
(Aaron Ricketts / Focus Features)
Teyana Taylor is an Oscar nominee for her performance in “One Battle After Another.” (She’s also a recent guest on “The Envelope” podcast.) She got that role after “One Battle” director Paul Thomas Anderson saw Taylor’s performance in “A Thousand and One,” written and directed by A.V. Rockwell. Vidiots will show the movie Saturday.
In the film Taylor plays Inez, recently released from jail in New York City and attempting to reconnect with her son who has been in the foster system. When an opportunity presents itself, she impulsively abducts him and tries to get them set up in a new life together.
In her review of the film, Katie Walsh noted that Taylor “brings to her astonishing performance the coiled physicality of a panther ready to pounce.” Walsh added, “The film is utterly absorbing, anchored by the unpredictable performance of Taylor, playing a hopelessly complicated, but deeply caring woman. When faced with dire circumstances, she survives, then dares to imagine a life for Terry beyond the cycle she’s experienced, forging a family unit she never had.”
Sonaiya Kelley spoke to both Rockwell and Taylor about the film. Taylor said of the part, “I was drawn to the role before I even read the whole script. … A lot of the emotions I put onto Inez were real emotions from real triggers.”
‘Dont Look Back’
Bob Dylan in the documentary “Dont Look Back.”
(Criterion Collection)
As part of an ongoing series, the Academy Museum will show D.A. Pennebaker’s 1967 “Dont Look Back” in the David Geffen Theater with doc director Joan Churchill in person to introduce the film.
A pioneering work of cinema verité, the film tags along on Bob Dylan’s 1965 tour of England, capturing a period of heady creative evolution. As Dylan plays a series of shows, he is also seen in various hotel rooms, cutting down journalists and others with a self-regarding wit.
As Charles Champlin said in his 1967 review, “The technical shortcomings deliberately enhance the atmosphere of claustrophobic chaos surrounding a pop idol on tour. And this, after all, is what the film is about. … [Dylan’s] milieu and its hangers-on are by no means uniformaly attractive. But after this skillful and exhaustive piece of film reportage, no one need ask what it and they and he are really like. The camera has become an X-ray.”
