Universal movies will stream on Peacock four months after they open in theaters

Peacock will get a much more consistent stream of new movies starting in 2022. Next year, Universal’s films will stream on Peacock no later than four months after they hit theaters, the two companies announced on Tuesday.

The new deal is a departure from the current set up that has Universal’s films heading straight to HBO after their theatrical window. However, starting in 2022, Universal’s movies will move to its in-house streaming service Peacock. Both Universal and Peacock are owned by Comcast, making this a natural partnership for the two companies.

Deals like this tend to last 18 months for each new movie and this new Universal and Peacock agreement is no different. However, what is different is how the deal will be structured. Peacock will have exclusive rights to new Universal films for the first four months and last four months of their 18-month streaming window. During the intervening 10 months, however, Universal can make deals with other networks to stream or show the movies as well. Universal has yet to reveal which other companies it will partner with.

This new deal is somewhat similar to Universal’s current arrangement, which sees most of its movies go to HBO, while Illumination titles, like the Despicable Me, and Minions movies, go to Netflix.

This new agreement will begin in 2022, which means that it will include several huge Universal properties including Jurassic World: Dominion, Jordan Peele’s next movie, as well as several movies from DreamWorks Animation and Illumination.