Don’t Want to Pay $30 to See Mulan? Disney+ Subscribers Will Get It Free on Dec. 4

With movie theatres around the world still either closed or operating well below their full capacities, Hollywood moguls have found themselves seeking other ways to get as many eyeballs as possible — and their money — on all of the blockbuster releases that won’t debut to the kind of box office numbers that they’re accustomed to.

Studios have adopted a wide variety of approaches to this. At first, this included simply releasing new premiere movies on video-on-demand services like iTunes as outright purchases or high-priced rentals, as was the case with Onward, Trolls World Tour, and several others. However, as the pandemic wore on, Hollywood began to get a bit more creative, with strategies such as Sony Pictures’ partnership with Apple TV+ to release the Tom Hanks hit Greyhound on the streaming service.

Interestingly, however, with its own streaming service in play, Disney has actually opted to try combining both of the approaches taken by other Hollywood studios. New releases like Trolls World Tour and Bill & Ted Face the Music have simply come out on iTunes as premium $20 rentals, offering the same 48-hour/30-day window as Apple’s normal $5 rentals, and Greyhound was available to all Apple TV+ subscribers at no extra charge — even those on a free trial. Disney has decided that when it comes to Mulan, however, it’s going for broke by offering the movie to Disney+ subscribers — but at a premium VOD price tier.

‘Premier Access’

Mulan was originally due to hit theatres last March, but like many movies it missed that release as theatres around the world began closing their doors. At the time, Disney simply announced that the release would be delayed indefinitely, likely in hopes that it would eventually be able to show it on the big screen.

By August, however, it became apparent that wasn’t going to happen any time soon and if Disney wanted to get the film out to the public and recoup its investment in production costs by the end fo the year, it was going to need to find another way.

So the entertainment giant decided it would try offering up a new feature called “Premier Access” by making the movie available for an $30 — but only to Disney+ subscribers. In other words, the $30 is on top of the $7/month that subscribers already pay just to access the service in the first place. What’s also interesting about Disney’s plan is that it’s making Mulan available via an in-app purchase, mean it will happily be giving Apple a 30% cut from those who buy it directly from the Disney+ app on the iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV.

Now to be fair, Disney’s plan is a little bit different than a premium VOD rental like you’d get on iTunes, since it’s actually offering to let users keep Mulan after they pay for it — as long as they continue subscribing to Disney+, of course. By contrast, renting a premium movie like Trolls World Tour on iTunes gives you 30 days to start watching it, but it expires in 48 hours once you crack that seal, after which it’s gone for good (Onward came out in March as a digital purchase rather than a rental, but this was an exception likely since it already had a two-week opening theatrical run before the lockdown hit).

A Three-Month Rental

To be clear, however, when it comes to Mulan, you’re still kind of paying to rent it, but just for a longer period. Since the movie will eventually be available to all Disney+ subscribers, you’re simply paying to see it sooner — much like you would to go see it in a theatre, to be fair — and now we know how much sooner.

Disney has officially announced that Mulan will come to all Disney+ subscribers on Dec. 4th, three months after its debut this Friday. This means that if you’re willing to wait it out, you can get it included in your normal monthly Disney+ subscription, saving yourself $30.

What’s also interesting is that it looks like Disney might stop selling access to Mulan a month before its wider release, as it’s updated its FAQ page to add that “The Premiere Access offer will be available until November 2, 2020.”

This is also the fastest that a Disney movie has ever gone from a “theatrical” release to general availability. Usually it takes at least six months or more before the company’s movies make the transition from theatres to Disney+. For example, Frozen 2 hit theatres last year on November 22nd, but wasn’t supposed to arrive on Disney+ until this past June; it was only after the novel coronavirus pandemic hit in March that Disney decided it would release the movie to its streaming service three months early.

However, some of that timeframe is also intended to help bolster digital sales and rentals of new films, which normally find their way to iTunes, DVD, and other premium VOD releases within about three months. In the case of Mulan, that’s probably not as much of a consideration; since Disney is already offering the premium digital version from day one, there likely won’t be a huge market for the premium VOD or DVD version.

Ultimately, this whole move is really more of an experiment for Disney than anything else at this point, and while it’s still unlikely to see the same amount of revenue that it would get at the box office, Tom Hanks’ Greyhound has already proven that it should be able to attract a massive audience, and combined with original hit shows like The Mandalorian, the plan could potentially bring in millions of additional new subscribers to Disney’s already overwhelmingly popular streaming service.