Disney+ subscribers, prepare to be angry. Hulu subscribers enjoy a constant onslaught of new 20th Century Studios and Searchlight films. For 40 years from 1983 until 2022, Fox (now 20th Century Studios) films went to HBO for their Pay One window (the ~2 years after cinema and home media releases). With Avatar: The Way of Water in 2022, that deal finally ended. That means films like Chevalier and The Boogeyman go straight to Hulu after their time in theatres.
As part of Disney’s fall 2020 renegotiation of that HBO deal, HBO and Hulu shared the last couple years of Pay One rights. In some cases that meant a film went exclusively to Hulu, in other cases it went to HBO exclusively for 8 months before joining Hulu and co-streaming the 2nd half of the Pay One window. We wanted to put this resource together for you to see when the remaining “HBO Exclusive” Pay One films would join Hulu. By the end of 2023, all of them will be on Hulu!
| Film | Release Date | Studio | Streaming Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barbarian | September 9, 2022 | 20th Century Studios | October 25, 2022 (Max) June 25, 2023 |
| Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva | September 9, 2022 | STAR Studios | November 4, 2022 December 7, 2022 (Disney+) |
| See How They Run | September 16, 2022 | Searchlight Pictures | December 1, 2022 (Max) July 1, 2023 |
| Amsterdam | October 7, 2022 | 20th Century Studios | December 6, 2023 (Max) [ESTIMATED] August 6, 2023 |
| The Banshees of Inisherin | October 21, 2022 | Searchlight Pictures | December 13, 2023 (Max) [ESTIMATED] August 13, 2023 |
| The Menu | November 18, 2022 | Searchlight Pictures | January 3, 2023 (Max) [ESTIMATED] September 3, 2023 |
| Empire of Light | December 9, 2022 | Searchlight Pictures | February 7, 2023 (Max) [ESTIMATED] October 7, 2023 |
| Avatar: The Way of Water | December 16, 2022 | 20th Century Studios | June 7, 2023 (Max) [End of HBO Output Deal] June 7, 2023 (Disney+) |
| Chevalier | April 21, 2023 | Searchlight Pictures | June 16, 2023 |
| The Boogeyman | June 2, 2023 | 20th Century Studios | [ESTIMATED] September 6, 2023 |
| Theatre Camp | July 14, 2023 | Searchlight Pictures | [ESTIMATED] October 11, 2023 |
| Poor Things | September 8, 2023 | Searchlight Pictures | [ESTIMATED] December 6, 2023 |
| A Haunting in Venice | September 15, 2023 | 20th Century Studios | [ESTIMATED] December 13, 2023 |
| The Creator | September 29, 2023 | 20th Century Studios | [ESTIMATED] December 27, 2023 |
| Next Goal Wins | November 17, 2023 | Searchlight Pictures | [ESTIMATED] February 14, 2024 |
| Magazine Dreams | December 8, 2023 | Searchlight Pictures | [ESTIMATED] March 6, 2024 |
*Please note that our streaming date estimates are based Disney’s 2023 pattern of Wednesday releases, roughly 90 days after the theatrical premiere.
How Long Will Recent 20th Century Studios And Searchlight Films Stream On Hulu?
We can EXCLUSIVELY confirm/scoop that Disney appears to have split their Pay One window and will be pulling 20th Century Studios films from Hulu after a shockingly short 7-month window. As of now, Chevalier is expected to leave and head to another, yet unknown, streaming service on January 17, 2024. We are very concerned by this development. Did Disney truly make an incompetent decision to immediately re-sign a new Pay window deal immediately after the ending of the HBO deal instead of using their current films on their own services?
We wouldn’t be remotely surprised if Searchlight and 20th Century Studios films end up sharing with Peacock, Paramount+, or even Apple TV+ in 2024 similar to how Peacock only streams Universal Studios films during the first and last 4 months of the 18 month Pay One window with Prime and Netflix getting to hold films for a 10-month period in between. We will keep you posted if this changes.
Drew Ryan is a film, TV, and Disney geek. He has degrees in English, Student Personnel Administration, and Library & Information Science from Lawrence University, Concordia University-Wisconsin, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Interested in the minutia and licensing of streaming service content, he is always publishing lists, suggestions, and advocating for Disney’s missing library to be added to Disney+. Drew subscribes to Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, and Paramount+. You can find him waxing nostalgic over classic Disney Channel or geeking out over Marvel, CW shows, & Disney on Twitter.
