Champions – Picture: Focus Features
Hitting the theaters this weekend is the brand new Woody Harrelson movie, Champions, which has received rave reviews so far. But if you’d prefer not to venture out to the theaters to watch it, will it be on Netflix? The answer is yes… sort of. Allow us to explain more.
Directed by Bobby Farrelly, the new comedy is about a disgraced minor-league basketball coach who finds himself in legal trouble and is assigned to do community service coaching adults with various disabilities.
Focus Features is behind the movie, a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and its theatrical release is on March 10th, 2023.
When will Champions be on Netflix in the United States?
For those in the United States, Netflix will be the recipient of Champions, but not for at least four years, placing the movie to release on the service at some point in 2027 at the earliest.
It comes to Netflix via a deal struck with Universal in 2021. If we look at the terms of the deal, the part that pertains to Champions is the following:
“As part of the deal, Netflix will also license rights to the full Animated and Live Action slate from UFEG about 4 years after release as well as rights to select titles from Universal’s vast movie library.”
Suppose you want to stream the movie much earlier. In that case, you can do so with both Peacock and Prime Video, who share the first window rights to live-action Universal movies (Netflix shares with Peacock on animated releases). It’ll be streaming on Peacock first in a few months before heading to Prime Video.
If you don’t have Peacock, Netflix DVD (Netflix’s DVD rental service, which only operates in the US) will carry the movie within the next few months.
Will Champions be on Netflix internationally?
Netflix in South Korea is receiving new Universal movies around a year following its theatrical debut, meaning they will receive Champions sometime in 2024.
Netflix in select central European countries like the Czech Republic, Asian territories like Thailand, Hong Kong, and Australia are getting Universal movies around two years after their theatrical release, which would mean a 2025 release.
For most Netflix users in countries like Canada, Japan, South Africa, India, and the United Kingdom, you receive new Universal movies around two and a half years to four years after their theatrical release. That means you won’t see Champions on Netflix until at least 2025/6.
If you need some Woody Harrelson in your life, the actor has appeared in three Netflix Original movies thus far.
Most recently, he starred alongside Kevin Hart in The Man from Toronto (one of Netflix’s biggest movies of 2022), Kate starring opposite Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and the best of them all, 2019’s The Highwaymen starring opposite Kevin Costner.
Will you be checking out Champions in the cinemas or watching elsewhere? Let us know in the comments down below.
