Walt Disney PicturesFirst will be a 3-D run for “The Lion King” in movie theaters, then new box sets just 18 days later.

Theater owners are furious with movie studios for speeding up the release of movies on DVD and video-on-demand services. Except when they’re not upset about it at all.

That would seem to be the case with a new 3-D version of On Friday, Walt Disney Studios will release it in theaters. A lightning-fast 18 days later, new “Lion King” DVD and Blu-ray sets, two including 3-D versions, will arrive in stores. And theater owners, who normally get an exclusive period of about 120 days to show a film and have been forcefully protecting that privilege, are totally fine with that plan.

“No, we are not concerned,” said John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners.

On one level, it’s an example of Hollywood’s tendency to conduct business with confounding inconsistency. (We’re not paying stars $20 million a picture anymore! Until we do.) Theaters, eager to milk the animated classic anew, are looking the other way and calling “The Lion King 3-D” a special case that doesn’t set industry precedent the way Home Premiere did.

Home Premiere is a video-on-demand service, introduced by DirecTV in April, that delivers films into homes about two months after their release in theaters; theater owners were angered because the service shortened by 50 percent their exclusive window.

“The ‘Lion King’ movie was released in 1994,” Mr. Fithian said. “A DVD release in 2011 has a 17-year window. The fact that exhibitioners and our patrons can benefit from a 3-D release is gravy.” Disney’s move is also palatable because “The Lion King 3-D” will play in theaters for only two weeks, which is expected to give consumers who want to experience it on the big screen a sense of urgency.

Surveys that track audience interest indicate that “The Lion King 3-D” could sell $10 million to $12 million in tickets over its first three days, and some marketers with access to the data say $18 million is possible.

But “The Lion King 3-D” and its quickie DVD release — a strategy by Disney to use the attention that comes with a theatrical run to drive disc sales — could still set a precedent that may hurt exhibitors in the long term, industry analysts say. Some consumers, especially those in big cities, could become further disillusioned with moviegoing when they see theaters charging $17 for an adult ticket to a film that they will be able to see in their living rooms just days later.

Disney said “The Lion King 3-D” was not a test; even if it goes well the studio does not plan on routinely converting other beloved films in its library to the format and rereleasing them in theaters. A Disney spokeswoman said the 3-D release was more of a way to keep an aging film fresh while allowing a new generation of children to experience it in theaters.

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