Disney announced early this morning that there has been a lot of tinkering with the upcoming movie releases. The big news from their announcement is that Black Widow will be available not only in theaters but also on Disney + for an additional fee, much like Mulan’s. Disney is doing the same with Cruella, too, while some of their other moves include release date changes for Deep Water, Luca, Shang-Chi, and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and more. It all shows that while the theatrical performances will return, no one is ready to fully embrace this model. The hybrid model will remain, at least for the time being.
Here is part of Variety’s report:
While movie admissions in the US are slowly starting to recover, Hollywood studios don’t seem ready to release their biggest blockbuster hopefuls to the big screen just yet.
That said, Disney has massively revamped its upcoming plan, changing the release schedules for “Black Widow,” Emma Stone’s “Cruella,” “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” Pixar’s “Luca,” and a few others.
In particular, “Black Widow” and “Cruella” are now premiering on Disney Plus as they open in theaters. “Cruella” arrives as scheduled on May 28th, while “Black Widow” has been pushed back two months and debuted on July 9th instead of May 7th. Both titles are offered on Premier Access, which has a $ 30 rental fee.
The Black Widow move means that Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which was previously scheduled for early July, has been postponed to September 3rd. A traditional theatrical release is expected.
Meanwhile, Pixar’s coming-of-age animated adventure “Luca” will not be in theaters and instead will be released exclusively on Disney Plus on June 18 at no additional cost.
Despite the massive reorientation towards streaming, Disney has no plans to leave theaters entirely. Numerous smaller titles, mainly from the 20th century, have been postponed but will only be shown on the big screen, including “Free Guy” (August 13th), “The King’s Man” (December 22nd) and “Deep Water” (January 14, 2022) and “Death on the Nile” (February 11, 2022).
Stay tuned for more …
(Source: variety)
