Will Disney Debut More Blockbusters On Disney Plus?
Disney Plus: Another point of view
This morning we posted about one prominent investor urging Disney to go all-in on streaming via Disney+.
However, the facts might just point in a different direction for the media giant.
In an excellent article published this morning, and in the wake of a VERY tough month for The Mouse, James Brumley of The Motley Fool (via NASDAQ.com) wrote:
Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) CEO Bob Chapek said from the beginning that selling Mulan to existing Disney+ subscribers was an experiment rather than the new norm. Now the media giant has effectively made sure of it. That’s because Mulan is now being offered by third-party streaming platforms like FandangoNow and Vudu… To this end, if Walt Disney ever wanted to promote Disney+ by adding another pay-per-view flick to its lineup, that pitch just became much tougher to make. Future films may or may not be exclusive for very long given the handling of Mulan.
Disney Plus: Mulan Killed Tent Pole Premieres?
Um-kay. I’d say that argument seems to ignore the idea that families, who would have easily shelled out much more than 29.99 for Mulan at the theater, were able to watch — and keep — Mulan in their own living room.
And that takes into account that families may have done a double-take when Mulan was released elsewhere. IMHO, viewers paid for the privilege of watching Mulan (literally) out of the box.
However, Motley Fool acknowledged this, reminded readers of Bob Chapek’s words at the August earnings call.
“Mulan is a one-off… That said, we find it very interesting to be able to take a new offering, our Premier Access offering, to consumers at that $29.99 price and learn from it and see what happens not only in terms of the uptake of the number of subscribers that we get on the platform.”
Will Digital Premieres Continue?
The translation, at least as far as Brumley is concerned, is: Even though people are already paying for access to Disney content via Disney+, if they prove they’re willing to pony up more money for new films, we may revisit the model in the future.
Getty Images.
And we agree. If the money is there; the movie is good (Mulan raised questions) and if viewers (and investors) demand it, films will continue to debut on Disney+ (even if the film is offered elsewhere, later).
Check out the original article and a similar piece on Showbiz Cheatsheet.
