For the first time since March, you won’t have a problem finding a new movie to watching this weekend.
You have the long delayed “Mulan” live action picture from Disney. The mouse decided against a theatrical release because of the Coronavirus potentially hurting their numbers and instead decided to premiere the film on Disney Plus for an additional fee. A decision that irked many subscribers including myself (story HERE).
It will be indirectly competing with “Tenet”, the live action Christopher Nolan mind bender which debuted overseas last weekend and will be the unintentional tent pole that will have to revive the pandemic struck box office (story HERE).
That worries me. Will that hurt Tenet enough to scare other films off of the calendar? Will a bad Tenet bow just permit Disney to do the unforgivable and premiere “Black Widow” on Disney Plus?
The first impulse answer is no. They’re different films with different audiences. Mulan is a well.. Mulan. A Disney feature that is designed, and at this point priced to lure families huddling in front of the TV at home. If they’ll pay the extra fee on top of the existing fee.
“Tenet” is a sci fi action blockbuster that is meant to be watched in the movie theater and also might fly over the head of most of the kiddos (and probably some of the adults as well). It’s also too expensive because it might be a return to the already outrageous ticket prices that have been around for years. Folks might not be in a hurry to spend that money again.
What might happen is that Mulan will strip away some of that 18-49 crowd. I know that is TV talk but that is really what we’re talking about. How much money does that mean? I don’t know. That’s why I’m writing this post.
Really, both should be successful. There are things I don’t like about both releases but this was an imperfect year. The best case scenario is that both films are successful and that movie makers look to work both channels and deliver great movies to us every way possible. For a fair price.