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THANK YOU!! I thought I was the only one who was noticing this!!
It's also a title word that means nothing, even to those who can pronounce it, which is
a another thing that may work against it. I also think that because the Coronapacoplyse has
totally mucked up their marketing plans, it's going to be a 'hard sell' to get people into see it.
I really wish we had a reliable blockbuster to open with . "Tenet" which has a great pedigree due to being a Christopher Nolan film, is still no sure thing. First it has a title nobody can pronounce (every single person who's mentioned it to me has called it "Ten" or "Tenant" and it's a confusing title anyway. Plus it's an original property that doesn't have a built-in audience like a Marvel or Pixar movie would, and there are no name actors in it either. Yet I feel like if it doesn't do $40 million for the opening week they're gong to call it a flop and we'll start seeing more of those held-back movies going straight to video.
Well, this may be the mind-readjustment moment for the studios. They have always lusted after the idea that VOD, i.;e., eliminating the middle man and keeping ALL the profits, was the goose that laid the golden egg. Covid may just be the moment where they see that it is either that goose ring or that the egg turns out to be rotten. Covid may teach them how much they really need theatres or maybe can go the other way, maybe they will take away that they actually can do well with a direct-to-the-consumer model, or maybe a combination of both, but with a different ratio and different theatrical window. Whatever the take they get from this stretch of time, on the other end of covid, I think distribution will look a lot different than it did before. Look, even DIs are getting a higher, more respected profile as they are the only theatres able to play content during the pandemic.
Disney does all kinds of things that are counter-intuitive. (Not booking their movies for matinees, over-long playtimes for small towns, high film rents, to mention a few) This new thing just adds to the list.
Although I have to say I can't blame them.... they are draining money bigtime from the theme parks so they need to shore up their cash flow.
Yeah, Disney likes to dictate how you can use their content, often in a very counter-intuitive way, at least from our perspective. But like you indicated, they're hemorrhaging cash right now at almost all their business units, their theme parks alone made billions of losses the last few months. But putting a few DCPs up to release doesn't really cost them anything of significance, whereas there will be quite a few theaters at least giving a try to play the movie. I'd say, in this situation, take everything you can...
But rumor has it, the Disney top is in turmoil right now, some people supposedly jumping ship and playing musical chairs for those top positions has set in, so I guess it will take a while before thoughtful decision making will be part of the game again...
Disney does all kinds of things that are counter-intuitive. (Not booking their movies for matinees, over-long playtimes for small towns, high film rents, to mention a few) This new thing just adds to the list.
Although I have to say I can't blame them.... they are draining money bigtime from the theme parks so they need to shore up their cash flow.
If you're open, I guess it's still worth giving a shot, since there is little to nothing else to play anyways. I doubt they will sell too much of those $30 VOD tickets on top of the subscription, people will wait a few weeks until it pops up in their flat-fee library.
It will be interesting to see what the major chains in Europe will do. Some still have Mulan listed as "coming soon", but this decision could cause them to boycott the movie entirely.
New York (CNN Business)Disney's "Mulan" has been delayed multiple times, but audiences will finally be able to see the blockbuster. It just may not be in the theaters.
Disney announced on Tuesday that the remake of the 1998 animated classic will be heading to Disney+, the company's new streaming service, for an additional fee of $29.99. The film will be available on September 4.
Bob Chapek, Disney's CEO, said the pandemic has forced the company to think of "different approaches" to better serve consumers.
"We thought it was important to find alternative ways to bring this exceptional family friendly in a timely manner," he said on the earnings call.
The news of the release came as Disney released brutal quarterly results that showed the extent to which the company's media empire was ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic --a net loss of nearly $5 billion on Tuesday.
In addition to its whopping quarterly loss, Disney's parks business was hit particularly hard by COVID-19. Its parks and resort unit lost $3.5 billion in the quarter. The unit's revenue was down a whopping 85% from the year ago quarter.
Overall sales for the company fell 42% to $11.8 billion.
Chapek said that "Mulan" will be released simultaneously in theaters in markets where Disney+ is not available and, of course, where theaters are open.
While "Mulan" going to Disney+ is big news, it's yet to seen if the announcement will have huge ramifications for the theaters since Chapek called the film's release "a one off."
Overall sales for the company fell 42% to $11.8 billionOne bright spot was Disney+, Disney's new streaming service, which had nearly 60 million subscribers at the end of June, according to the company.
[quote]On Disney’s 3Q earnings call today, it was announced that Mulan is going to Disney+ on Sept. 4.
Specifically, Disney will be releasing the film theatrically in certain markets where the studio currently has no announced launch plans for Disney+ and where theaters are open (i.e. China). The concern with opening the film in some theaters in the world, and not others, was, of course, piracy-related.
CEO Bob Chepak said it was important to find new avenues of distribution during the pandemic and that “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 Sept. 4, with the price point being $29.99 in the U.S.”
Chepak added during a round of questioning with financial analysts, “We’re pleased to bring Mulan to a consumer base that’s been waiting for it as we’ve had to move our (release) dates several times…We’re looking at Mulan as a one-off as opposed trying to say that there’s a new business windowing model.” What Disney will be keeping an eye on with Mulan is the uptick in subscribers as well as transactions generated on the service with that new price point. So, exhibition, don’t lose your hair yet: Disney isn’t planning to take Black Widow out of theaters this November (at least not yet).
In regard to pricing Mulan at the near $30 price, Chepak added, “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+.”
God knows this decision will be a crushing blow for those U.S. movie theaters planning to reopen and in need of a big title. However, no one knows how the big circuits reopening is going to look and perform. Also, New York and California have yet to give a full clearance for hard top cinemas to reopen. There was buzz that Disney could go this way with Mulan, but some believed that they were just waiting to see what went on with Tenet. Disney’s decision today to take Mulan straight into homes over Labor Day weekend makes the Universal-AMC deal window collapse deal look like child’s play in regards to creating future ‘revenue events’ out of these finished movies which are collecting dust on the shelf. No Mulan just means more screens for Tenet as more cinemas come back on line. stateside.
On July 23, Disney took Mulan off the calendar temporarily (its previous date being Aug. 21) as Warner Bros. was pausing their Tenet plans then. It was unfortunate timing by Disney as it was on the same day when AMC announced they’d be reopening slowly around the country by mid-August.
Chepak also mentioned today that global subscribers for Disney+ have reached 60.5M. Netflix recently announced that they’ve jumped their WW sub count to 193M.[/QUOTE]
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