In the last year, John Krasinski's A Quiet Place Part II and Christopher McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible 7 are two films that have found themselves jumping around the release calendar. These moves at the time were signs of confidence that Paramount Pictures had in their individual potential money-making capacity at the box office, but now there's an interesting new wrinkle that has been added to the conversation, as it's been confirmed that both films, in addition to Joseph Kosinski's Top Gun: Maverick, will be made available to stream just 45 days after their initial releases.
Paramount is getting serious about their plans to be a dominant name in the streaming game, and with Paramount+ set to launch next week the studio made some announcements today (via Variety) that should get movie fans excited. One of the special features of their new in-house service is that they are promising much faster digital releases for major films, and three of the first titles that will be impacted by this decision are A Quiet Place Part II, Mission: Impossible 7, and Top: Gun Maverick. Following their respective release dates in the second half of 2021, they will be made available for Paramount+ subscribers about a month-and-a-half after they start playing on the big screen domestically.
Right now, Top Gun: Maverick is set to be the first title to be affected by this new deal (because of its July 2 release date), and it will be interesting to see how on-going world events may impact it. If theaters are still only able to function with limited capacity in the fall, will Paramount make the move to shift its date so that it can sell as many tickets as possible? Or does this new "45 days until streaming" plan mean that the studio will plan to put the movie out regardless?
Following the deal they struck with AMC Theatres last summer, Universal Pictures has been doing the latter with movies like Christopher Landon's Freaky and Paul Greengrass' News Of The World... but at the same time they have continued to push the release of Justin Lin's F9 because of its money-making potential. Ultimately Paramount will have to weigh the money that could be made by the Top Gun sequel on the big screen versus how many potential subscribers it could draw to Paramount+.
The same question will then hold true for A Quiet Place Part II and Mission: Impossible 7, but those movies have a much more relaxed timeline to work with. While Paramount will probably have to make a firm call about Top Gun: Maverick in the spring (as they will have to ramp up marketing), the horror film and the spy thriller have a lot more time to keep their fingers crossed regarding the state of the COVID-19 pandemic. A Quiet Place Part II certainly has an interesting incentive to stay exactly where it is, as 45 days after its current September 17 date is October 30, meaning that the anticipated sequel would be available to stream just in time for Halloween 2021.
Mission: Impossible 7, meanwhile, doesn't quite have the same kind of holiday plan set out. It's currently set to jump the gun on Thanksgiving a bit with its November 19 release date, and then it will be landing on Paramount+ just after New Years on January 3, 2022.
While this move isn't quite as extreme as Warner Bros. decision to release their entire 2021 slate day-and-date in theaters and on HBO Max, it's still a huge deal, and obviously involves some highly-anticipated films. We'll have to wait and see where things go from here, and how the industry winds up reacting to the move.
Paramount+, which is currently known as CBS All Access, will be available starting March 4.
