Disney CEO Bob Chapek doubled-down on his plan for Disney to release films in movie theaters on Tuesday. But that could change in the near future.
Chapek said Disney still plans to release “Mulan” on July 24 — almost four months after its original release date. Similarly, Marvel’s “Black Widow” will still launch on Nov. 6 (the original date was May 1) and Pixar’s “Soul” will drop on Nov. 20.
So it’s clear Chapek wants to keep theater releases for now. But he hinted his tune might change, according to CNBC.
“We very much believe in the value of the theatrical experience overall to launch blockbuster movies,” he said. “But 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 anybody needs to be financially viable.”
Chapek said Disney would consider each movie on a case-by-case basis. For example, Disney announced in April that it would release “Artemis Fowl” straight to Disney Plus instead of movie theaters, which was the original plan, as I wrote for the Deseret News.
Walt Disney Co. executive chairman Bob Iger said at the time of that announcement that “Artemis Fowl” might not be the only film to be released on the platform, according to the Deseret News.
Iger said, “In terms of movies going ahead after ‘Artemis,’ there may be a few more that we end up putting directly onto Disney Plus, but for the most part a lot of the big tentpole Disney films, we’ll simply wait for slots. In some cases, we’ve announced new ones already, but later on in the calendar.”
For now, it will be, according to Chapek.
“All our other tentpole movies have been rescheduled theatrically for later in the year, so we very much believe in the power of that launch platform for our big movies,” Chapek said Tuesday, according to CNET.
But Disney has already released “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” Pixar’s “Onward,” and “Frozen 2” on Disney Plus ahead of schedule to help give people new content to watch during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Deadline, Disney earned $13 billion from the global box office in 2019. Half of that went to exhibitors, though.
“Releasing films directly to consumers, by contrast, would boost margins, but the well-oiled marketing machine built up over the decades has been optimized by Disney in recent years,” according to Deadline. “A change to the first release window would have a dramatic effect on other revenue pegged to box office.”
Other studios have hinted at following this model, too. For example, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell suggested movies might move to video on demand and theaters for first release since the studio’s “Trolls World Tour” performed so well upon digital release.
That said, AMC and other movie theaters said they would no longer release Universal films in their theaters as a response to that decision.
It’s unclear if movie theaters will ever return to normal given the coronavirus pandemic, which doesn’t seem to be going away.
Chapek, of Disney, said the company will learn how well movies released in movie theaters will perform a week before “Mulan” comes out.
He said, “We’re going to get a pretty good idea about that because there’s a competitive movie that opens up one week before ours. At that point, we’re hoping that there’s some return to some semblance of normal in terms of the number of screens that are opening and the number of showtimes. … Our fingers are crossed.”
Correction: This article previously identified Disney’s CEO as Bob Chepak. His name is Bob Chapek.