The far-left Walt Disney Company blinked bigtime this week. Marvel’s Black Widow, which has been on hold for more than a year, was pushed from May 7 to July 9, and yet, it will still premiere as a streaming title on Disney+ on the same day it hits theaters.
Unfortunately for the fools who subscribe to Disney+, this is not like HBO Max, where theatrical titles are offered free to subscribers on the same day they hit theaters. No, Disney+ is going to charge its sucker-subscribers $30, not to buy Black Widow on July 9, but to rent it.
What’s more, Disney’s latest attempt to revive the 101 Dalmations franchise, Cruella, will get the same treatment. It hits theaters and Disney+ on May 28. Once again, Disney+ subscribers will be charged a $30 rental fee.
Ahh, but the latest from Pixar, something called Luca, is skipping theatrical completely and will stream free for Disney+ subscribers on June 18.
This is the second Pixar title to do this. Pixar’s Soul went straight to Disney+ on Christmas Day last year.
So what does all this mean?
Well, it once again validates what Breitbart News has been telling you for more than a decade… Streaming it is, baby. That’s what people want and that’s where the money is. Streaming is the Golden Goose — a monthly infusion of subscriber case in the hundreds of millions. Let me put it this way…
What movies have done best in theaters during this pandemic? Children’s movies. And yet, Disney is bypassing theatrical completely to offer what is now two Pixar titles (Soul and Luca) on Disney+ for free. Pixar is the biggest brand — by far — in children movies and Disney is essentially downgrading this brand into TV Movie Land… Why? To attract those monthly subscribers, those Golden Geese. Disney+ currently has more than 100 million worldwide subscribers. With a $6.99 subscription fee, Disney is collecting almost $700 million a month — a month! — from this Golden Goose. That’s about $10 billion — billion! — a year.
And you know Disney+ will raise its prices. By 2025, between the price increase and subscriber base, Disney will probably be raking in $1.25 billion a month.
The real beauty of that? With theatrical movies, your budget doubles due to promotional costs. If you release a movie on streaming, almost all of those promotion costs go away.
But now Disney has pulled the streaming trigger on a Marvel movie! That’s truly amazing, and another testament to how truly vital streaming is and will be in the future. This isn’t about the coronavirus. Disney could have kept bumping Black Widow until things were back to normal. No, this is about experimenting with the hybrid of a theatrical release and pay-per-view release — but a pay-per-view release meant to attract people to Disney+.
For now, at least, the next Marvel movie, something called Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, will premier only in theaters on September 3. Don’t be surprised, though, if Disney tries the theatrical/streaming hybrid again.
You see, we just don’t know what life is going to look like after the pandemic, and judging by the words of that idiot Dr. Anthony Frauduci, the government might try to keep us in masks and social distancing until well into 2022.
How has a year or two of anti-science lockdowns changed American behavior?
How has the inexpensive convenience of streaming changed American behavior?
Are we the same people who can push a movie to a $400 million domestic gross? Or have we decided we prefer being at home? That we prefer videogames? That we’re more concerned about and aware of germs than before and sticky movie theaters kinda gross us out?
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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