Other Disney Movies That Could Release On Disney

Other Disney Movies That Could Release On Disney+

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Could other Disney movies skip theaters and release on Disney+ like Mulan? Here are some of the candidates (and how likely they are to go that route).

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Other Disney Movies That Could Release On Disney

There are other Disney movies that could skip theaters and release directly onto Disney+ after Mulan, but how likely are they to go that route? Like the rest of Hollywood, the House of Mouse has been forced to overhaul their 2020 release slate in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Of late, theaters have gradually started to reopen in select locations after closing down in March, and are currently showing older films while operating under strict health and sanitation guidelines. But with COVID-19 numbers still spiking in the U.S., major markets in New York and California have yet to reopen their movie theaters over safety concerns.

Because of this, it’s become increasingly obvious the film industry will have to rethink their release slate for the remainder of this year. A number of movies previously scheduled for September to December have already shifted back to 2021, and more are expected to follow suit in the months ahead. As for those staying put, many of them are going to debut on VOD and select U.S. theaters day and date, like the long-awaited sequel Bill & Ted Face the Music. Others, however, are embracing a less conventional strategy, with Tenet currently being set to open internationally before premiering stateside in areas open for business.

In Disney’s case, they’re sending Mulan straight to Disney+ for $30, having already delayed it five months from its previous release date in March. And while the studio is describing the situation as a one-off for the time being, Disney+ insiders are claiming otherwise. So, it begs the question: which other Disney-owned 2020 movies could go to Disney+ next?

The New Mutants

Other Disney Movies That Could Release On Disney

Few movies have struggled to hold onto a release date like Josh Boone’s The New Mutants in recent memory. The last of the live-action X-Men films produced by Fox before Disney acquired its entertainment assets, the movie was originally scheduled to open in April 2018, but has since been postponed multiple times, and is currently scheduled to open theatrically near the end of August. With the movie theater situation being as fluid as it is, many (fairly) suspect the film will inevitably have to be pushed back once more, and are calling on Disney to simply release it on VOD, Hulu, or Disney+ (perhaps with a one-time fee, a la Mulan) instead.

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That sounds good and all, but there’s a problem. As Boone explained to Collider in an interview in July, “With most movies, you sign contracts that guarantee a theatrical release, so it needs to open to ever go digital in the first place.” It’s the same issue with the other holdover Fox films that Disney currently has scheduled to open in 2020 (including, Death on the Nile and Free Guy): in theory, Disney should be contractually obligated to release these movies in theaters first, and even after that the streaming rights will presumably go to HBO before Disney. So, unless something changes or has already changed behind closed doors, The New Mutants isn’t suddenly going to drop on Disney+.

Black Widow

Other Disney Movies That Could Release On Disney

Much like Mulan, Marvel’s Black Widow was one of the most anticipated tentpoles of the year when 2020 began. After the COVID-19 pandemic took a turn for the worse in March, the film was delayed from its previous release date at the beginning of May, and is now set to arrive in November. For months, MCU fans have called for the movie to release directly onto Disney+ instead, but it never really seemed like a genuine possibility. Black Widow simply cost too much to make ($150-200 million) for Disney to drop it on the streaming platform without any way of recouping their expenditures. And yet, in the wake of the announcement about Mulan, the idea feels much more plausible now.

Keeping that in mind, Black Widow going straight to Disney+ still feels like a long-shot. The film is part of the massive brand that is the MCU, and could easily gross over $1 billion in theaters worldwide, were it to release sometime after the pandemic has been brought under control. There’s also the fact that Disney’s streaming platform already has Marvel Studios content in development with their upcoming shows like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, so there’s not really a gap in their programming for Black Widow to fill. And with Disney already getting blowback for skipping theaters with Mulan, they might be all the more hesitant to repeat the strategy with a similar-sized tentpole (regardless of how successful Mulan actually is).

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Soul

With Pixar having already released one film this year (Onward), it’s easy to forget they have a second one scheduled for 2020. The latest offering from Up and Inside Out director Peter Docter, Soul was originally slated to open in June, but has since moved back to November as part of Disney’s post-coronavirus release schedule changes. The beloved animation studio is a brand unto itself thanks to their reliability in the quality of their output, and their box office returns have been all the more consistent for it. Their lowest-grossing movie from the 2010s, The Good Dinosaur, still made $332 million, and even Onward has found success streaming on Disney+ after its own theatrical run was sabotaged by the pandemic.

Question is, if Mulan performs well, will it thusly inspire Disney to scrap Soul’s theatrical run in favor of a similar release on Disney+ (with the same $30 surcharge and all)? Pixar’s non-sequels are usually bankable, but they’re not surefire smash-hits the way MCU movies are. And with their next animated project, Disney Animation’s Raya and the Last Dragon, not scheduled to arrive until March 2021, the studio may prefer to keep Soul exactly where it is via a streaming release, rather than delaying it again. Of all the films that could go to Disney+ after Mulan, this one seems the most likely, yet far from a done deal. Then again, with the way this health crisis has played out, who knows what will happen two weeks from now, much less in three months when November rolls around.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/disney-plus-movies-release-streaming-theaters-black-widow-soul/

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