As this pandemic stretches on, what with resurgences in some countries and continued spread in the U.S., movies are being delayed more and more. The important question has come up: why don’t movie studios just make movies available through streaming services or through Video on Demand? As our own Senior Editor Karl put it, it all comes down to greed. But it looks like Disney needs to pull in some of its revenue and so the live-action Mulan is headed to Disney+.
Subscribers to the service will not get to watch it for free, however. The movie will cost those who want to watch it $29.99 to watch on top of their subscription fee. And if you’re thinking that this could mark the beginning of a bigger trend, then prepare to be disappointed.
“We’re looking at Mulan as a one-off as opposed to say there’s some new business windowing model that we’re looking at,” Disney CEO Bob Chapek said on the company’s earnings call.
There’s no word yet on films like Jungle Cruise, Black Widow, and other Disney-owned projects and whether they’ll be making the jump to streaming.
Mulan won’t be the first major motion picture to move to the smaller screen first. Trolls: World Tour moved to Video on Demand early and made $100 million in rental fees, and Universal was considering doing the same with its other projects (even though it pissed off AMC). As many places hit a second wave, or continue to experience increases in infection rates and death, we will likely see more movies make the jump.
Mulan will be available for rental on Disney+ on September 4, 2020.
