Disney is set to release one of the most anticipated movies of the year - the live-action Mulan - directly onto Disney+ next month, it has been announced.
Yes, according to a report from Variety, Mulan will be eschewing the traditional movie theater release in the United States and instead become available on Disney+ straight away, albeit with a caveat.
You can watch the official trailer for the live-action Mulan right here:
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After several delays to the movie's intended theatrical release date, Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced that Mulan will premiere on Disney+ on a "premiere access" basis that will cost subscribers $29.99 to purchase. It will reportedly become available on September 4.
“In the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, and number of countries, we will be offering on Disney+, the epic Mulan on a premiere access beginning September 4, with the price point being $29.99 in the U.S.” Chapek said during a call with analysts.
“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 later added.
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Regarding Mulan's price point of nearly $30, Chapek said:
“As you know it’s fairly expensive to produce for consumers the quality we’re known for. Rather than simply rolling (the movie) into a free offering, we thought we can test anything when you have your own platform. We’re trying to establish a new premiere access window to capture that investment we got (in the film). We’ll have a chance to learn from this. From our research under a premiere access offering, not only does it get us revenue from our original transaction of PVOD, but it’s a fairly large stimulus to sign up for Disney+.”
During the earnings call, Chapek also revealed that Disney+ global subscriber numbers now stand at more than 60.5 million worldwide. Per Deadline, Netflix's subscriber count now stands at 193 million.
Mulan is set to be shown theatrically in markets with widely open movie theaters, it's reported. Specific territories are yet to be named.