Disney has decided to take two steps back and say goodbye to the simultaneous premieres at the box office and its streaming platform, Disney +, at least that is what it announced for the five remaining Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution films that will be released in 2021.
Through a release, the giant of the entertainment industry reported that of the new films, four will have a minimum exclusive premiere window in theaters of 45 days, and only Charm will have a 30-day window, so that users can see it in streaming The 24th of December. The exact theatrical release dates for Disney movies are:
- The last duel, October 15th
- Ron’s Gone Wrong, October 22
- Eternals, November 5th
- Charm, November 24
- West Side Story, December 10
- The king’s man, December 22th
Reason for change, according to Disney
According to Kareem Daniel, President of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution, this change in Disney’s plans is due to “Tremendous box office success” of the films released in summer, of which five were placed among the best releases in the United States.
“Following the tremendous box office success of our summer films, which included five of the eight biggest national premieres of the year, we are excited to update our theater plans for the remainder of 2021,” he said in the statement. “As confidence in going to the movies continues to improve, we look forward to entertaining audiences in theaters, while maintaining the flexibility to give our Disney + subscribers the gift of Charm in this Christmas season, ”he added.
This will undoubtedly benefit the film industry, not only in the United States, but in Mexico and the entire world, as it will provide an opportunity for the sector to recover in the last quarter of the year with the films that will reach the big screen.
We must consider that some of the premieres mentioned in the statement are ‘Cruella’, ‘Jungle Cruise’ and ‘Black Widow’, tapes that were released at the same time at the box office and streaming, but thanks to this and the effects of the pandemic, it affected the performance of the premieres in the hegemonic format.
Despite the fact that, according to Disney’s latest financial report, its streaming Disney + has 116 million subscribers, just over half of the current Netflix user base, this has not been enough to make Premier Access the ideal way for all users to consume a new film.
In addition, we must say that the decision was made after a few months ago the actress of ‘Black Widow’, Scarlett Johansson, filed a lawsuit against the company before the simultaneous premiere in cinemas and Disney + of ‘Black Widow’.
Although nothing of this is mentioned in the official Disney statement, there is no doubt that this could also have greatly influenced the decision made by the house of Mickey Mouse to keep exclusively in theaters the premieres of its remaining films of the year .
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