Thor: Love and Thunder hit theaters July 8. But critics’ middling reviews (“disappointingly shallow” is how our own reviewer described it) may have you holding out until the film moves out of cinemas and onto Disney Plus.
Disney’s streaming strategy for its theatrical releases has been all over the map. Encanto spent a month in theaters before streaming. For Marvel‘s Eternals, it was two. West Side Story — the Steven Spielberg reimagining of the musical — hit Disney Plus about three months after it played exclusively in cinemas.
For now, it’s a guessing game how long Thor will take to hit Disney Plus — but Disney just provided a big clue.
When is Thor: Love and Thunder’s streaming release date on Disney Plus?
Disney hasn’t confirmed a streaming release date for Thor: Love and Thunder yet. But Disney disclosed Lightyear’s streaming release date Tuesday, and with that, it’s a safe bet that Thor will begin streaming on Aug. 24 on Disney Plus.
During months of pandemic lockdown, Disney let many movies hit Disney Plus to stream the same day they were released in cinemas. But for more than a year, Disney has been giving its live-action theatrical releases long stints of exclusivity in theaters before making streaming an option. Unfortunately, Disney’s hasn’t officially declared a standard length for these theatrical exclusives yet.
But the company appears to be settling on giving its theatrical films 47 days in theaters before streaming it on Disney Plus.
Disney’s last two films both spent 47 days in theaters before hitting Disney Plus: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness became available to stream 47 days after its wide release in theaters — that’s two weeks quicker than Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. And most recently, Disney announced Tuesday that Lightyear, its first Pixar movie to be released in theaters at all since early 2020, will start streaming on Disney Plus on Aug. 3 — also 47 days after its theatrical release.
That’s why Aug. 24 is the date to expect. It would mean Disney has Thor: Love and Thunder following the same 47-day timeline.
With Disney appearing to adopt this 47-day window, it’s also moved closer to the norms of other major studios, which have largely gravitated to theatrical exclusivity lasting about 45 days. (There are, however, exceptions for big franchise-film blockbusters this summer.) The good news is that this so-called “window” of time is shorter than it was when Disney first reintroduced theatrical exclusives last year.
Fortunately, unlike some other studios, Disney typically confirms the streaming release date for its films a couple weeks in advance, so the official date should be set in early August.
