Mulan is Coming Directly to Disney+

Is Disney shifting to a new model?

Mulan fans might be disappointed to hear Disney’s latest announcement on the upcoming live-action remake. Instead of its planned theatrical release, the remake will now be premiering on Disney Plus on September 4th for a premium rental price. 

The company sees this as a way to test whether customers are willing to pay for a movie that they can no longer watch in cinemas, but have to make do with at home instead. They also think it would be a great way to drive subscribers for Disney+ given how much people have been looking forward to the remake of such a classic movie. 

However, there’s bad news even for existing subscribers of the streaming platform as well. Mulan won’t directly be available through subscription. Consumers, both in the US and other territories, can rent the movie at $29.99 as an additional cost to the monthly subscription fee of $6.99.

If you don’t have Disney Plus in your region, there’s no need to worry. Mulan will still be playing in cinemas in markets where the service isn’t available 

Why Mulan?

According to the company’s CEO Bob Chapek, the shift in Mulan’s release isn’t indicative of an overall new business model. However, many are skeptical. 

Chapek said

“We’re looking at Mulan as a one-off as opposed to saying there’s some new business windowing model that we’re looking at.”

In doing so, the company seems to be calming exhibitors’ concerns and telling them that it’s not turning its back on cinemas anytime soon. 

 

But even the trial with Mulan points to a thought process that aims to explore a future in VOD releases. Chapek also said that Disney wants to “learn from it and see the actual number of transactions’ ‘. What happens if they get a good response?

Is this worth the price?

At $10 more than Universal’s Trolls World Tour and an additional subscription price, Mulan is the priciest VOD release since 2011. And in a time of economic uncertainty and crisis is this really what consumers will think is worth their money? 

The decision to stream Mulan on Disney Plus could also be an attempt to rely on the streaming service as a top priority in pandemic times given that other forms of their business such as parks, theatres and stores are all suffering. At a cost of $200 million just to produce, Disney is going to have to bank on an innumerous amount of ticket sales and subscribers if it hopes to turn a  profit and the VOD model is possibly an attempt to do just that. 

Mulan’s theatre release has been delayed multiple times. The decision to delay at the time was possible because of co-chairman and chief creator Alan Horn and co-chairman Alan Bergman who emphasized on the importance of the film being seen on the silver screen. 

“Director Niki Caro and our cast and crew have created a beautiful, epic, and moving film that is everything the cinematic experience should be, and that’s where we believe it belongs — on the world stage and the big screen for audiences around the globe to enjoy together,” said Horn and Bergman in a statement at the time.

However, as a global release seems unlikely anytime soon, it remains to be seen whether all the hype around one of Disney’s most loved movies translated to its new VOD model.


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