Walt Disney’s live-action Mulan will skip most of the world’s movie theatres and will go directly to its streaming platform Disney + on September 4.
US subscribers to Disney+ will need to pay $30 to stream Mulan in their homes, Disney Chief Executive Bob Chapek said. The cost will vary slightly in other countries including Canada, Australia and New Zealand and in parts of Western Europe, Chapek said.
“In order to meet the needs 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,” Chapek said on the company’s earnings call. “We see this as an opportunity to bring this incredible film to a broad audience currently unable to go to movie theaters.”
The movie, reported to have cost $200 million to produce, is a remake of an animated Disney classic about a female Chinese warrior and stars Yifei Liu in the title role.
Disney’s shift on Mulan followed a deal in July between Comcast Corp’s Universal Pictures and cinema chain AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc to allow the studio to release films directly to consumers after just three weeks in theaters, down from the average three months.
Mulan was expected to be one of the major theatrical releases on the US post the coronavirus pandemic. Another highly anticipated release—Christopher Nolan’s Tenet was pushed indefinitely by production house Warner Bros, recently.
Originally set for a March 27 release, Mulan was moved to late July, then late August amid the pandemic.
