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Disney Announces Eternals And Rest of 2021 Slate To Have 45-Day Theater Exclusivity

September 10, 2021 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Eternals Image Credit: Marvel Studios

Disney has made it official that the rest of their 2021 film slate, including Marvel’s Eternals, will have a 45-day theatrical exclusivity period. The company announced on Friday (per Deadline) that the remainder of its scheduled 2021 films will release exclusively in theaters for 45 days. That includes Eternals, The Last Duel, West Side Story, The King’s Man, and Ron’s Gone Wrong.

The one exception to the announcement is the animated Escanto, which will instead have a 30-day exclusive run when it releases on November 24th.

The move comes after Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings broke records with a $94.7 million four-day Labor Day weekend gross without a day-and-date release on Disney+. The studio has been widely viewed as fumbling some of its moves to release films during the pandemic, specifically in regard to the lawsuit Scarlett Johansson filed over the studio’s Premier Access Disney+ release of Black Widow. Other studios have gone day and date, most notably Warner Bros. with its HBO Max day-and-date releases, but they have also alleviated complaints by renegotiating to compensate talent for potential bonus losses due to lesser theatrical box office.

“Following the tremendous box office success of our summer films which included five of the top eight domestic releases of the year, we are excited to update our theatrical plans for the remainder of 2021,” said Kareem Daniel, Chairman, Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution. “As confidence in moviegoing continues to improve, we look forward to entertaining audiences in theaters, while maintaining the flexibility to give our Disney+ subscribers the gift of Encanto this holiday season.”