No Way Home Starts Streaming on Disney Plus
Fans can't get enough of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Peter Parker's Marvel Cinematic Universe threequel grossed an incredible $260 million dollars in its domestic opening weekend, the second-largest debut in Hollywood history. Beyond its nationwide haul, No Way Home webbed up over $600 million worldwide, rocketing its momentum towards crossing that illustrious billion-dollar plane.
Much like Marvel event films of yesteryear, such as Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, a substantial amount of Spider-Man: No Way Home's box office will be thanks to repeat viewings. It's not uncommon for fans to flock to the theaters multiple times for the same picture, especially when it's a movie of this magnitude.
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Regardless of how magical that theatrical experience is, the rise of on-demand streaming will inevitably have many impatiently waiting for No Way Home to be one click away.
When Will Spider-Man: No Way Home Begin Streaming?
Spider-Man and streaming have a similar relationship status to Ned Leeds and Betty Brant: it's complicated.
Spider-Man: No Way Home will be available on-demand come the new year, but it will be sling-ringing itself from platform to platform. Before it finds its home on Disney+, Spider-Man: No Way Home has a couple of pit stops.
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First Stops: VOD and Starz
2021 is the final year of Sony Pictures' Pay 1 partnership with Starz, meaning Spider-Man: No Way Home's December release sneaks it onto Starz's streaming catalog. That Pay 1 window, also known as 1st Pay, gives the streaming partner exclusive streaming rights to a film immediately following its standard video-on-demand window.
While all VOD windows are different, 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home gives a general sense of what to expect. After debuting in theaters on July 2, 2019, Far From Home made its VOD debut 77 days later on September 17. Far From Home landed on DVD and Blu-ray two weeks after that and it finally made its way to streaming platforms in the first quarter of 2020.
If Spider-Man: No Way Home follows this exact trajectory, this threequel will land on VOD in early March and then will stream on Starz sometime in Summer 2022.
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Drive-By: Netflix
Netflix missed its Spider-Man: No Way Home opportunity by just 15 days.
Earlier this year, the red and black streaming giant inked a Pay 1 window deal with Sony Pictures. In short, this means Netflix is picking up where Starz left off. All the same rules apply; however, this begins in 2022.
This means Netflix gets first dibs on 2022 Sony titles like Morbius and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, but will miss out on Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
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Destination: Disney+
All roads lead to the House of Mouse.
Just two weeks after Netflix snagged the Pay 1 window of Sony releases, Disney agreed to become Sony's Post-Pay 1 partner. In simple terms, this means Disney eats third. Once Spider-Man: No Way Home wraps its Pay 1 window on Starz, it will make its way onto Disney+.
The industry standard Pay 1 window is 18 months, which is the duration Netflix and Sony agreed upon for their multi-year deal. If No Way Home runs for that full year and a half window on Starz, this would slate it to land on Disney+ sometime in mid-2023 at the earliest. If its VOD window pushes it deeper into Spring 2022, fans might have to wait as late as early 2024 to stream Spider-Man: No Way Home on Disney+.
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Spider-Man: One-of-a-Kind Outlier
Fortunately for Marvel fans, Peter Parker is the only character that deals with this kind of streaming unpredictability.
Since most of Marvel Comics' characters are under the Disney banner, Marvel Studios has no middle man to worry about. This year, in particular, Disney has essentially axed the VOD window, as they made Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings available on Disney+ the same day it hit digital VOD markets. This also meant it was available to stream before it hit shelves as a Blu-ray or DVD, an unprecedented release window move.
Shang-Chi's shake-up was not a one-time occurrence either, as Eternals is set to stream on Disney+ on January 12, over a month before its available for physical purchase in mid-February.
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For now, fans can enjoy Spider-Man: No Way Home in theaters across the globe.
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