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The Mulan release isn't exactly a rental, since subscribers who pay will gain permanent access to it. $30 for a digital purchase, even one that requires an ongoing subscription, may not be a good deal, but I'd say it's more reasonable than the $20 one-time rentals I've seen in the last few months.

I think Mulan and Black Widow have the unfortunate side effect of being female led films and in case of Mulan being Asian led. This will skew the perceptions of these still underrepresented movie experiences.

Like Mulan will obviously lose money through this model and piracy and it will allow a future Disney exec to refuse another Asian led film down the line.

Or if they go a similar route with Black Widow but that has Captain Marvel as an example to mitigate factors.

But all said, it is unfortunate that the first major studio dump happened to be an Asian led and female led movie.

captveg wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2020 2:48 pm Just looking at numbers, Hamilton was streamed ~500,000 times on Disney+ over its debut week. Let's say by some miracle twice that many with Disney+ stream Mulan, which means they pay an extra $30 than they did for Hamilton. That's still only $30m in revenue for a film that was expected to make $100-150m opening weekend in the US alone. Now, granted, it may also drive subscriptions and earn Disney+ money that way, but Disney has essentially decided to sacrifice / write-off this film to earn a very little return in 2020 rather than a larger potential return in 2021.

I don't know much about streaming figures, but is half a million streams for Hamilton considered good? That seems low considering Disney+ has over 50 million subscribers who had "free" access to the release.
Disney expected Hamilton to be a big theatrical release, and judging by those figures it would probably open under 10 millions at the box office, right?

My wife wants to see Mulan (as do the kids) but when she heard it was $30 her response was "fuck that" and we'll buy the 4K disc when it comes out. She's been renting other titles but she felt that was pushing it, even if you do get to "keep" it. The only title we bought where we would have taken the kids to the theater if we could have was that Scoob movie, which was $20 and you "owned" it on any platform.

Quick question Chris : how much would it have cost you to go with your wife and kids to see Mulan if it was released in theaters ? I know the ticket prices in France but only the avg price in the US, which I guess is driven down by arthouse and indie theaters so seeing Mulan wouldn't have cost $9.5 per seat.

The thing is, you can’t compare it to going out to the movies with your family, you have to compare it to renting a movie at home. This is the same problem lots of dot com papers and magazines faced when they compared their services to subscribing to a paper, not reading things online

I always felt the group who would stay at home and watch a movie is very different than that who would go to the theater. It's been like that since the video era, and continues still into the streaming age. There's a big difference of going to the theater and making a day of it by going with the family, enjoying snacks, seeing trailers, and maybe even going out after, versus the people who will stay at home to watch a movie, cooking dinner and choosing to stay in. Going to the theater is a social experience and that alone makes it for a different group of customers. I personally prefer the theater, but wouldn't besmirch anyone for preferring the latter (God knows I watch so many films at home). I think it's silly to compare streaming versus theater price points as they're two completely different experiences.

tenia wrote:Quick question Chris : how much would it have cost you to go with your wife and kids to see Mulan if it was released in theaters ? I know the ticket prices in France but only the avg price in the US, which I guess is driven down by arthouse and indie theaters so seeing Mulan wouldn't have cost $9.5 per seat.

I mean, it's cheaper to pay $30 than to go to the movies, which, depending on time of day, can be between $40 to $80 (and even that depends on snacks). Then we'd probably go to dinner or do something else. My wife is against paying that much to watch at home (the theater is part of the experience), especially with the limitation of it being only on Disney+ and having to keep the subscription. I think that last aspect irked her more. She'd rather just buy the disc when it comes out (and get a digital code as well).

I don't care either way in all honesty, but I don't disagree with her.

Here in Europe it's quite easy to get a 2 for 1 ticket for Wednesday or Thursday (through your mobile or broadband provider), so even a family of four would pay less watching it at the cinema. I cannot fathom why adults really need popcorn while watching films, that is why I avoid watching arthouse films in major chains.

domino harvey wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2020 10:17 pm The thing is, you can’t compare it to going out to the movies with your family, you have to compare it to renting a movie at home. This is the same problem lots of dot com papers and magazines faced when they compared their services to subscribing to a paper, not reading things online

Normally we wouldn't compare it, but in a scenario where people can't go to the movies and probably won't in the foreseeable future, watching a brand new blockbuster at home might be the closest you can get to it.

domino harvey wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2020 10:17 pm The thing is, you can’t compare it to going out to the movies with your family, you have to compare it to renting a movie at home. This is the same problem lots of dot com papers and magazines faced when they compared their services to subscribing to a paper, not reading things online

As felipe wrote, we usually wouldn't, but this isn't a regular rental and a regular situation in which the normal alternative is easily accessible. Moreover, it actually won't be a rental but some kind of "over the top" purchase (since you'll have illimited access to it once bought), but it also isn't, at least for the moment, a structural proposal like what you're describing for newspapers. This is (again, at least for the moment) an exceptional offer related to an exceptional situation. A closer comparison would be reading things online when you can't really access the printed version anymore.

At $30, this clearly looks like what Disney is thinking about : aiming at replacing a family outing with an at-home access for a price tailored for that (or maybe : at a price tailored for that but slightly inflated because they believe it'll still work anyway).

cdnchris wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2020 11:19 pmI mean, it's cheaper to pay $30 than to go to the movies, which, depending on time of day, can be between $40 to $80 (and even that depends on snacks).

But what would be the cost of the tickets in that ? I know the overall environment of a night at the theater would generate additional expenses, but I was wondering about the tickets' part in particular (since it seems that's what Disney is solely looking at from a price point perspective).

Early shows can be something like $7 each, while later shows may be between $14 and $17 each (if i recall correctly, it feels like an eternity since we all went to the movies).

France has spoken! Thou shalt not short circuit the almighty theatrical window.

I guess we don't always strike or protest, we also sometimes smash stuff !
Joke aside, Disney's unreliability with theaters on this one surprisingy came as a surprise to theaters owners, who have been complaing about Mulan, Tenet ans other big prods delays, despite dozens of movies (OK, smaller ones) being released each week.

It's the symbol of our addiction to tentpoles like these and the lack of forecast of the results of such an addiction. Theater owners were very happy to cave in to Disney, only to realise now how unreliable a supplier they actually are. Meanwhile, indie theaters are reporting only a quarter of the drop vs 2019 bigger more big prods oriented theaters are reporting. And indeed : non big studios movies are doing quite similar to what non big studios movies were doing last year. We're just... lacking the tentpoles. We're likely to lose 70m tickets sales vs 2019 and that's... pretty much what the 7% of annual new releases breaking 1m tickets sales are cumulating altogether... while the 600 other new releases are sharing the remaining 130m tickets.

Wow, a dispatch from part of the world where theaters are actually open. Here in the U.S., I'd be surprised if I saw a movie in a theater before 2022.

I've seen Roy del Ruth's The Mind Reader and HHH's Shanghai's Flowers last Tuesday ! I hope the theater owner will remember my sacrifice to the cause.

In less practical effects on the industry, it looks like this has all turned Juliette Binoche into a 5G/Bill Gates vaccine chip-er, based on her Instragram comments:

"Ce sont des opérations organisées par des groupes financiers internationaux (principalement américains) depuis longtemps. Ils manipulent (sans être parano) : les vaccins qu'ils préparent en font partie : mettre une puce sous-cutanée pour tous c'est NON. NON aux opérations de Bill Gates, NON à la 5G".

"These are operations organized by groups if international financiers (mainly American) for a long time. They manipulate (not being paranoid): the vaccines they are making are part of it : putting a subcutaneous chip in everyone is NO. NO to Bill Gates' operations, NO to 5G."

I don't understand the ROI on this conspiracy, especially since "they" can already track you through your phones. It seems ridiculously expensive for a fairly lame end result.

If you're going to hate Bill Gates, do it for a valid reason, like teaming up with the Walton family to get states to funnel public funds into charter schools.

Has Disney announced what will happen to Mulan in countries with no Disney+?

It's getting a standard release in those countries. It opens in some this weekend (including Taiwan, Singapore, the Czech Republic, and the Middle East) and in China on the 11th (certainly later than Disney wanted, but they don't control release dates there).

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote: Fri Sep 04, 2020 10:04 pm It's getting a standard release in those countries. It opens in some this weekend (including Taiwan, Singapore, the Czech Republic, and the Middle East) and in China on the 11th (certainly later than Disney wanted, but they don't control release dates there).

What about countries that have neither Disney+ or open theaters, like Brazil? Will they wait until cinemas reopen or make the film available through local streaming services?

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote: Fri Sep 04, 2020 10:04 pm It's getting a standard release in those countries. and in China on the 11th (certainly later than Disney wanted, but they don't control release dates there).

I would think Disney would want Mulan in theaters over the Chinese National Day holiday, which runs October 1-7. Especially because Chinese won't be traveling abroad much at all this year and many won't travel much domestically, so movies will be a major entertainment option, more so than for a usual holiday. Will Mulan stick around for 3 weeks to get to the holiday and then run for the holiday week? I doubt it. Then again, I believe theaters in China are now allowed to operate at just 50% capacity after initially starting at 35% in late July (22nd, I think it was), so runs could be longer (and with fewer films being released too). In any case, many film fans will have seen it already by the holiday.

I'm just speculating, but the release date of Sept 11 (besides any unfortunate symbolism that hopefully is accidental) sounds like one of those typical Chinese decisions which is designed to dampen the CH audience for a major US film, and then some Chinese blockbuster will likely be released just before National Day to scoop up the lion share of holiday ticket sales. I could be wrong, but that's exactly how things regularly work here in China. Give Mulan a nice enough window, but save the prime holiday-going audience for Chinese films.

For those that have ventured out to theaters in the US, I was wondering if they were still including the 20-30 minute standard slate of previews. Much to my surprise Regal has already opened in NJ and all the local AMCs in the coming week.

I haven’t been to a theatre that’s part of a conglomerate so I can’t comment on those most likely to do so, but my local independent theatre played one trailer and then straight to the feature, and that feature was Tenet (which I would expect to contract more previews, but that’s just speculation).