The prolonged delay of Mulan is now over as Disney officially announces its arrival to its online streaming service with an additional price tag.
Disney executives have decided to skip the theater debut of the highly anticipated live-action film Mulan. The film will be made available on September 4 for a “premiere access” worth US$29.99[AU$41.55].
Micky News previously reported that the 1998 Disney film remake was rescheduled for a July 21 theater release but was delayed to August 21. With the month of August now starting and the pandemic still on a high, there was news of it getting delayed indefinitely.
Mulan on Disney Plus
The Mulan Disney Plus decision was announced during the earnings call on Tuesday. Based on The Verge‘s report, the $29.99 fee will be on top of the regular $6.99 subscribers’ monthly fee for the streaming platform.
As of this writing, it wasn’t sure yet if non-subscribers can pay the $29.99 fee for the movie alone. Disney is yet to respond to the publication about this point of clarification.
Although, Variety reports that CEO Bob Chapek “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.”
With ‘Mulan,’ Disney Tests Out Entirely New Early VOD Model. 'Mulan' won’t be available directly to subscribers; Consumers will have to pay $29.99 to rent the movie on top of the streaming service’s monthly subscription fee of $6.99. Will you be renting 'Mulan' on Disney +? pic.twitter.com/7oaW7X7Xyg
— Breakfast Television (@breakfasttv) August 5, 2020
Meanwhile, the tentpole film being available on Disney Plus is said to be a one-time event only. Chapek clarifies, “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.”
Disney Plus receives over 60 million subscribers
Despite the 85% plummet in revenue for “lucrative parks” and other physical Disney enchanted experiences, Disney saw a big win with its streaming services.
As of last month, Disney Plus reached a milestone of having more than 60.5 million subscribers. It now ranks third after Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, per Variety‘s data.
The aforementioned report is read in a positive note as Disney Plus has only been operating for roughly nine months.
With Mulan debuting online, Chepak says the team will be studying the numbers that the premiere will generate. Although this was supposed to be a “one-off” event, things may change when Mulan does gain a good amount of audience.
Collider weighs in on this with the possibility of the Black Widow movie being next in line for a PVOD rental release.
#BlackWidow fans demand Marvel film does not launch on Disney Plus like Mulanhttps://t.co/Rp5XXjlGqT
— MirrorMovies (@MirrorMovies) August 5, 2020
So far, Netflix is doing great with new movies debuting within the online platform. Chris Hemsworth’s Extraction became a big hit, with The Old Guard following suit.
Featured image courtesy of Mulan/Facebook