Alien Romulus is terrifying fans in theaters (‘in the multiplex, no one can hear you scream’) but we’re looking forward to streaming it from the comfort of home when it eventually lands.
The only way to see Alien Romulus right now is in cinemas, and that won’t change until the film has completed a theatrical run that pleases the folks at Disney.
It has been doing well on that front, which usually means a lengthy wait for the digital release date. If it had flopped, we’d be able to watch it on our couches sooner.
The Alien movie will be added to two streaming services: Hulu and Disney+. Which one you’ll need will depend on your location.
How to watch
Alien Romulus is a theatrical exclusive for now. It will stream on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK after its cinema run.
The 2020s’ successful horror movies like Longlegs and A Quiet Place: Day One tend to follow a similar pattern: holding out at the box office for as long as possible before becoming available for premium video on demand, then streaming at no extra cost at the end of the cycle.
Romulus will most likely be up for rental or purchase before it streams on a subscription service.
Alien Romulus doesn’t have a Disney+ release date yet
Disney hasn’t announced a streaming date for Romulus on Disney+. There’s usually around a three-month wait after theatrical release.
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For example, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes streamed on the service three months following its cinema release date, and around one month after it landed on PVOD.
This is a reasonable comparison given Kingdom and Romulus had similar domestic opening weekends ($58.4 million for the former and $42 million for the latter). Kingdom faced significant week-by-week drops, however, which means Romulus could hold out for longer.
When the new movie could stream on Hulu
No date has been announced, but we’re probably looking at a three-month or longer wait for Alien Romulus on Hulu.
We expect the Hulu and Disney+ releases to coincide or at least be close together.
This won’t be a Prey situation. Despite how closely linked the Alien and Predator franchises are, Romulus is not a straight-to-Hulu film like Prey. It almost was a streaming release, though. Director Fede Álvarez told Variety, “That decision was not made at the point where theaters were healthy. [But] it was always going to be an ambitious movie for [a streaming] platform.”
He pitched 20th Century Studios (owned by Disney) on a theatrical release and was listened to. The theatrical window applies to Romulus as a result. It won’t come to Hulu until it has played in theaters for a while and become available on PVOD platforms like Apple TV and Amazon Prime first.
Until then, check out the Alien Romulus timeline, why Sigourney Weaver isn’t in Alien Romulus, or the Alien Romulus and Isolation connection.
