Picture: Sony Pictures
As we head towards the end of the summer, Sony Pictures has just unleashed its new family comedy movie Harold and the Purple Crayon headlined by Zachary Levi, Lil Rel Howery, and Benjamin Bottani. The movie is currently in theaters, but when will it be on Netflix?
Directed by Carlos Saldanha, the new movie adapts the Crocket Johnson book about a young boy who can make anything come to life simply by drawing it. Despite positive audience reviews (albeit less than stellar critics reviews), the movie hasn’t set the box office on first since its initial release.
When will Harold and the Purple Crayon be on Netflix in the United States?
As the movie is with Sony Pictures, it will fall under the distributor’s first window deal with Netflix since the beginning of 2022. That deal states that following the theatrical window closing, Netflix will hold the movie for 18 months. That’s why movies like Madame Web, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and others are all streaming on Netflix right now.
Typically, a movie takes around 120 days to drop onto Netflix following its initial theatrical release. In the case of Harold and the Purple Crayon, that’d make its preliminary Netflix US release date November 30th, 2024.
That 120-day wait isn’t always gospel, though. Some movies come a week or two after or a week or two before. Either way, you can expect the movie to drop sometime in November or December 2024.
It’ll then move to Hulu or Disney+ after 18 months in May 2026.
In our full preview here, we’ve got more on the Sony Pictures movies currently on Netflix, plus when they’ll leave and what’s coming up next.
When will Harold and the Purple Crayon be on Netflix Globally?
Netflix US won’t be the only region of Netflix that will be getting Harold and the Purple Crayon later this year. Netflix in India will receive the film alongside the US around the same time (late November), and soon after, regions like Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Africa will stream the movie.
Other regions will be getting the movie in 2025, including some European territories, such as Germany and the Netherlands.
For those in the United Kingdom or Canada, other providers have the first window rights, but from our observations, Netflix holds the second window rights, meaning it’ll be sometime in mid-2026 when the movie drops on Netflix there.
Are you checking out Harold and the Purple Crayon in theaters, or will you wait for its inevitable Netflix release? Let us know in the comments.