After being postponed multiple times, Disney has announced that its tentpole film “Mulan” will bypass American theaters and go straight to Disney Plus next month.
Disney Plus now has over 60.5 million paying subscribers as of last month, just nine months after the launch of the direct-to-consumer streaming platform. And after several delays to its theatrical release date, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said that “Mulan” will premiere on the service on a “premiere access” basis on Sept. 4 for $29.99. The film will be released theatrically in markets in which access to the movie on Disney Plus is not available.
Chapek was quick to emphasize on the call with analysts that the “Mulan” release on Disney Plus is a one-time event.
“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,” he said.
“We find it very interesting to take a premiere offering to consumers at that $29.99 price and learn from it,” said Chapek, noting that they would study the number of transactions and the number of subscribers generated by the movie.
He also said that the premiere access window created on Disney Plus for “Mulan” acts as a “fairly large stimulus” for new consumers to sign up for the streaming service.