The Disney+ streaming service has reached 54.5 million subscribers worldwide according to the company yesterday during its quarterly earnings call. That’s a gain of 4.5 million since April 8th and one of the few bright spots for Disney in an otherwise rough teleconference.
Along with $1.4 billion in losses across all of its operations over the first quarter of this year – most of which comes from its parks, experiences and consumer products business – Disney CEO Bob Chapek also used the call to discuss the future of the studio’s distribution efforts. It seems that Universal isn’t the only one re-evaluating how it releases films in the future as Chapek says:
“We very much believe in the value of the theatrical experience overall for large blockbuster movies. We also realize that either because of changing and evolving consumer dynamics or because of certain situations like COVID, we may have to make some changes to that overall strategy just because theaters aren’t open or aren’t open to the extent that anyone needs to be financially viable. We’re going to evaluate each one of our movies on a case-by-case situation.”
That sort of evaluation likely led to Disney pulling “Artemis Fowl” from its theatrical run and putting out directly on the Disney+ service. Marvel & major tentpole films such as “Mulan” are certain for cinema releases, Chapek says the company is sticking with the July 24th release for “Mulan,” its first big movie out of the gate and one that’s banking on “incredible pent-up demand from moviegoers”.
Also confirmed theatrical for now are “Black Widow” (November 6th), Pixar’s “Soul” (November 20th) and 20th Century Studios’ “Free Guy” (December 11th). What this means for smaller films or other leftover projects from the Fox acquisition such as “The New Mutants” or “Death on the Nile” isn’t clear.
Chapek also says there are currently no plans at present to begin production of upcoming movies, including Marvel films, in light of the ongoing pandemic. When production does resume, filming will feature health precautions such as masks on sets.
Source: The Playlist
