Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning
Paramount President Jeff Shell Re-Embraces the Theatrical Window
August 14, 2025
New Paramount president Jeff Shell is re-embracing the theatrical window.
The former NBCUniversal CEO, who famously kicked the legacy 90-day theatrical window to the curb post-pandemic, including expediting theatrical releases to the Peacock streaming platform within 17-30 days of their box office debuts, is now on board with feature films staying longer on the big screen.
“That’s what makes a movie a movie, and we’re all united in that,” Shell said Aug. 13 at the first “Paramount, a Skydance Company” press conference.
Shell, who was joined by CEO David Ellison, Paramount Studio co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, and direct-to-consumer chair Cindy Holland, said each theatrical release’s release window would be evaluated based on box office performance.
“That’s what makes a movie a movie, and we’re all united in that,” Shell said. “I believe in windows, and I think we all believe in windows.”
Paramount’s recent theatrical slate saw extended theatrical windows, including Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning (81 days), Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (14 weekends), Smurfs, Novocaine (four weekends) and Heart Eyes (eight weekends).
“Do I believe you can maximize value in windows? Absolutely, and we’re going to be looking at our windows across each thing,” Shell said.
Adam Aron, CEO of AMC Entertainment, the nation’s largest theatrical exhibitor, earlier this year said he believes the minimum window should move back to 45 days and beyond (60-74 days) depending on the movie — a strategy he says would benefit a title’s incremental revenue potential.
“I sure hope that we can introduce longer windows because I think the current industry experiment on windows has failed,” Aron said. “In our view, 17 days and 30 days are too short. And we would like to convince all the major studios that they should keep movies in theaters longer. And this is a conversation that is front and center live [today].”
Shell concurs that each theatrical release’s box office window is unique and not created equal.
“I think we’re pretty united up here in terms of theatrical being critical and it has to be part of the equation, but we’re also going to be much more diligent about looking at the value,” he said.
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