As A Real Pain continues its run in theaters, its streaming release will become top of mind for many.
From writer/director/star Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain tells the story of two mismatched cousins who, to honor their fallen grandmother, embark on a journey of self-discovery aboard a Holocaust site tour in Europe.
Starring Eisenberg and Succession actor Kieran Culkin, the globe-trotting dramedy has been picking up major buzz since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, so much so that Culkin has become one of the bettering favorites to win "Best Supporting Actor" at the 2025 Academy Awards in March.
When Will A Real Pain Be Released Online?
Following several weeks on the big screen, A Real Pain's next major milestone will be its online release date.
This will see the Jesse Eisenberg-led dramedy arrive on Premium Video on Demand (PVOD) services such as Google Play, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime Video.
While no official online release date has been announced as of yet, one can look at past releases from the studio to see if there is any sort of past precedent to base projections on.
A Real Pain is being distributed by Disney-owned Searchlight Pictures — a studio that has had several major releases over the past couple of years that could reveal when the movie may hit PVOD.
Typically, Searchlight films arrive on demand somewhere between 60 and 80 days after their theatrical debut. Most recently, the studio has seen movies like Kinds of Kindness and All of Us Strangers come to PVOD 67 and 62 days, respectively, after hitting the big screen.
A Real Pain started its theatrical run with a limited release starting on November 1 but then went wide a couple of weeks later on November 15. If it were to follow the pattern of the studio's last two films, that would mean it should be released online sometime in early January (around January 7).
Below is a list of recent Searchlight Studio movies and their theatrical-to-online release windows:
- Next Goal Wins (60 days)
- Theatrical: November 17, 2023
- Digital: January 16, 2024
- Poor Things (81 days)
- Theatrical: December 8, 2023
- Digital: February 27, 2024
- All of Us Strangers (62 days)
- Theatrical: December 22, 2023
- Digital: February 22, 2024
- Kinds of Kindness (67 days)
- Theatrical: June 21, 2024
- Digital: August 27, 2024
When Will A Real Pain Come to Streaming?
As is the case with its online release date, A Real Pain does not yet have a streaming release date as well.
Because Searchlight Pictures is Disney-owned, its movies come to streaming on Hulu (Disney+ internationally). However, how they do so has changed over time.
Films from the studio before mid-December last year (i.e., Next Goal Wins and Poor Things) took a while longer between their online and streaming release date, sometimes up to another 30 days or so (bringing the window between their theatrical releases up to a full 90 days).
However, that has changed in recent months, as movies like All of Us Strangers and Kinds of Kindness have debuted on streaming within days (sometimes on the same day of their online releases).
If A Real Pain follows in the footsteps of this more recent trend from the studio, then a streaming release around the same time as its online release in early January would make sense.
However, if it were to dip back into the studio's old strategy, then a streaming release somewhere around 90 days after it initially hit the big screen could be possible (early February).
Below is a list of Searchlight Pictures films and their theatrical-to-streaming windows for comparison:
- Next Goal Wins (90 days)
- Theatrical: November 17, 2023
- Streaming (Hulu): February 15, 2024
- Poor Things (90 days)
- Theatrical: December 8, 2023
- Streaming (Hulu): March 7, 2024
- All of Us Strangers (62 days)
- Theatrical: December 22, 2023
- Streaming (Hulu): February 22, 2024
- Kinds of Kindness
- Theatrical: June 21, 2024 (70 days)
- Streaming (Hulu): August 30, 2024
A Real Pain is now playing in theaters.
