Disney CEO Bob Chapek is optimistic about Black Widow's flexible release plan. Black Widow takes place between Avengers Civil War and Infinity Wars. In the film, Natasha Romanoff has to face her past when a conspiracy threatens her spy career. The film was initially supposed to hit theaters in May 2020 but was postponed to November 2020 due to the pandemic. As that date approached and the biggest movie theater markets remained closed, Disney postponed Black Widow once again to May 2021 and eventually landed on a July 9, 2021 release date.
Disney first devised its flexible release plan for the live-action remake of Mulan. The film was initially set to release in March 2020 then was pushed to be a summer blockbuster in 2020. When it became clear that theaters weren't reopening anytime soon, Disney devised a plan that allowed viewers who had access open to movie theaters to see it on the big screen without leaving those who didn't have access out. Fans who paid an extra $30 on top of their Disney+ subscription would have access to Mulan simultaneously as moviegoers. Disney implemented the same plan for Raya and the Last Dragon and now will follow suit for Black Widow.
Deadline reports Disney's CEO Chapek has spoken out on the positives of Disney's latest model for release films during the pandemic. Even though two-thirds of North American movie theaters are open, Chapek is confident that releasing Black Widow in theaters and Disney+ as a Premier Access feature is a strong course of action. He dubbed this as a flexible release plan and that "flexibility is good." He claims Disney is "celebrating that flexibility" by "trying to offer consumers more choice." Chapek has noticed that there is still hesitancy about returning to movie theaters during this "interim period," so he believes this method is the best way to reach the most people.
“We’ve already delayed Black Widow a couple of times, we didn’t want to delay it again. Yet, at the same time, we always knew there was a risk that exhibition wasn’t going to be fully developed or consumers wouldn’t want to go back and sit in theaters. So, we realized we had to sort of prime the pump and give theatrical exhibition a chance. We couldn’t put all of our eggs in the theatrical exhibition basket because we knew that in the weeks leading up to the decision that the domestic market was not coming back. And it’s still fairly weak. So, we’re very confident that we made the right call there.”
As for box office sales, Chapek isn't confident that the US will bring in high profits. Instead, he noted that international sales have been on the rise and hopes to make up for North American box office sales. However, there is a possibility that more moviegoers will come through for the box office hits that typically hit in the summer. Additionally, many Marvel fans will want to see this action-packed feature on the big screen. It is still reasonable to provide streaming options for films as the world hasn't quite hit the new normal yet.
However, there have been many critics of Disney's approach to streaming. Charging $30 for a film on top of already paying the subscription price for Disney+ seems unreasonable, especially since the $30 fee is steeper than the cost of one or two movie tickets. Plus, the price doesn't include the big screen experience that comes with going to the movie theater. The $30 Premier Access plan only benefits large families who save on buying numerous movie tickets at the box office. Especially since Disney+ eventually takes these films off of Premier Access to stream for free, viewers feel it's most advantageous to wait and avoid the $30 fee. It'll be interesting to see if subscribers will have that same kind of patience for the much-anticipated Black Widow after it releases on Disney+ as well as theaters on July 9.
Source: Deadline
