A lot has been made about whether or not the Premier Access release of MULAN on Disney+ was a success, & even though consumers griped about spending $29.99 on the film, it looks like Disney scored a pretty good windfall with the live-action adaptation on the platform.
According to a research firm, "Yahoo" reports that 29% of US households that subscribe to Disney+ have purchased MULAN from the time it was released through September 12, a total of nine days since it debuted as a $30 Premier title on the streaming service. Since it’s estimated that 30 million of the 60+ million worldwide subscribers to Disney+ reside in the US, that means roughly 9 million people have already spent $30 on MULAN. And when Yahoo did the math, that comes to a total of approximately $261 million.
MULAN costs an estimated $180-200 million to make so more ground needs to be covered for profitability considering that's the estimated budget without marketing costs but there is no denying that the figure is impressive. That being said, these aren't official numbers from Disney & it's from a third party but these third parties make their money from being accurate so I think it's ok to buy into what they're saying. The real question now is: Is this the future of film?
I still don't think it totally is. A release like this works for MULAN and films of its type because at its heart it's a family film & spending $29.99 for a family film at home, especially if you have a sizable family, makes sense. This is why TROLLS WORLD TOUR & SCOOB! did so well on PVOD as well. I'm not convinced film like TENET would hit these numbers in 9 days on a service like this because it's a very niche release & certainly not for everyone. I still maintain that when it comes to this model, it simply depends on the film.
Would MULAN be at $261 million in nine days theatrically? Perhaps worldwide but even that is a long shot. These figures make Disney's decision to possibly release SOUL on Disney+ instead of theaters, a pretty bright endeavor at this point. Calling a win for Disney on this one but I still don't think this is a one size fits all situation.
Do YOU think this release model works for all films? Is this the future of Cinema?