A theater owner destroyed a Mulan promo after Disney+ announced its plans to release the film direct to U.S. consumers. Reactions were mixed when Disney announced that the highly anticipated live-action adaptation of Mulan was going straight to Disney+. Mulan was supposed to premiere in theaters back in March. However, it was one of the many films delayed multiple times due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Although shares in Disney increased after the Disney+ announcement, theater owners have expressed their dismay over the decision.
After all, movie theaters have been struggling since the pandemic began. Most theaters were forced to shut down initially due to COVID-19, with many still unable to justify reopening due to the lack of new releases. Certain movie theater chains like AMC even delayed their reopening based solely off of new movies like Mulan being delayed. Basically, theaters across the world were counting on new releases like Mulan to draw patrons back to the movie theater to justify reopening and to actually make enough money to remain open.
French indie cinema owner Gerard Lemoine displayed his frustration over the situation with a bat and a Mulan pop-up promo poster. Per an interview with Deadline, Lemoine expressed why he was so exasperated over the situation. "It’s really a huge effort to stay open right now for most of us...By losing Mulan, we lost the possibility of offering our audiences a long-awaited film that would have helped us after these past hard weeks." Check out the video of Lemoine, demonstrating his frustration over the situation below.
Many theater owners can likely relate to Lemoine's demonstration. Although some movie theaters have been able to reopen, many remain completely shutdown. These theaters will probably remain shutdown if other new films follow the Disney+ precedent and go straight to streaming. It's a terrible dilemma because many movie-goers might've remained hesitant to go back to the theaters even if Mulan had premiered in cinemas only. The movie theater industry stands to lose up to $31 billion by the end of the year, and that's not even factoring in straight to streaming new releases like Mulan. What if other major new films decided to follow suit? After all, Disney's decision will likely draw in a lot of new subscribers to its streaming service. Subscribers have to pay a one time fee of $29.99 to watch Mulan, but then they have access to the film forever.
Disney stated that the Mulan decision would not be a one-off for VOD releases. Other highly anticipated films like Black Widow and Tenet are still scheduled to release in theaters, for now. While decisions like this are terrifying for the theater industry, there's no denying that there's a magic in going to the movie theater that's hard to beat. Hopefully, the world will reach a point where patrons feel safer returning to cinemas, and hard-working theater owners can keep the magic of movies alive.
Source: Destination Cine/Twitter, Deadline