by Thinus Ferreira
After postponing and pushing out its cinema roll-out three times because of the global Covid-19 pandemic The Walt Disney Company on Tuesday as part of its latest quarterly earnings report announced that it will finally release its live-action Mulan film in September - but with a catch.
Similar to what other American studios have done with their big-budget films, and what has been happening in South Africa with new locally-produced films as well - where films from Greyhound on Apple TV+ to Griekwastad on DStv BoxOffice sidestep cinemas and now go to premium video-on-demand - Disney is placing Mulan on its Disney+ video streaming service.
Mulan will become available on Disney+ in September in countries where Disney+ is available like the United States, Canada and Western Europe, while Mulan will run in cinemas in countries like South Africa and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa where Disney has not made Disney+ available.
In the quarterly earnings results call with investors Bob Chapek, Disney CEO, said "unfortunately we've had to delay the release of Disney's highly-anticipated tentpole film, Mulan, a number of times due to the impact of Covid on theatres".
"In order to meet the need of consumers, during this unpredictable period, we thought it was important to find alternative ways to bring this exceptional, family-friendly film to them in a timely manner."
"We're announcing today that in Disney+ markets, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a number of countries in Western Europe, we will be offering Disney+ subscribers the epic adventure Mulan on Disney+ on a premiere access basis, beginning 4 September," said Bob Chapek.
"The price point will be $29.99 (R517.84) in the United States, and will vary slightly in other countries. Simultaneously, we will be releasing the film theatrically in certain markets where currently we have no announced launch plans for Disney+ and where theatres are open."
"We see this an opportunity to bring this incredible film to a broad audience currently unable to go to movie theatres, while also further enhancing the value of a Disney+ subscription with this great content."
In it's quarterly results Disney revealed that it's global Disney+ subscriber base has now grown to 60.5 million users. This makes Disney+ the second largest video streaming service behind just Netflix's nearly 193 million.
Disney took a revenue hit because of its theme parks that were closed, and a $4.9 billion write-down on the value of its international TV channels because of the loss of advertising because of Covid-19.
Disney took over more than 200 TV channels worldwide after purchasing 21st Century Fox, including FOX Sports that were rebranded to ESPN and recently added to China's StarTimes and StarSat as well as MultiChoice's DStv in South Africa and across Africa.
