Around a week ago Disney released “Frozen II” on Disney+ months earlier than originally planned due to the coronavirus pandemic. Soon after that, Universal Pictures effectively began the premium VOD arrival with the scheduling of “Trolls World Tour” and the arrival of its other just released 2020 films this week in the home.
Warners and Sony soon followed and now it has come back around again to Disney who is going even further. Not only is it making the film available for Digital HD from 5pm US-PT today, it will then hit the Disney+ streaming service on April 3rd – just one month after the film arrived in cinemas.
The Disney+ release of “Onward” is frankly a shock. The direct-to-VOD release makes sense as a way to recoup money lost from the lack of theatrical distribution. With a Disney+ release, it is essentially giving the film away short of getting more people to sign up for subscriptions.
Disney has also been the biggest champion of the theatrical window model to date and this will likely concern exhibitors who are worried that audiences will get used to the idea of films being available at home so soon after being on the big screen.
Source: The Playlist
