Disney Turns Away From Cinemas
Beginning with today, The Walt Disney Company will focus on streaming. This is directly related to the current situation in the world, but also to the latest box office results of Mulan. Is that a good decision? It certainly is more financially secure.
There's no denying that over the last dozen or so months Disney+ has achieved a stable position on the streaming platform market, placing itself just behind the podium occupied by slightly more experienced players on the field (Netflix, HBO GO, Amazon Prime Video). However, the company's representatives decided to go one step further and put all the cards on the table, sharing their decisions on changing the company's policy in the media and entertainment sector. The Walt Disney Company's chief executive officer, Bob Chapek (via BusinessWire), explained this quite clearly:
"Given the incredible success of Disney+ and our plans to accelerate our direct-to-consumer business, we are strategically positioning our Company to more effectively support our growth strategy and increase shareholder value,” Mr. Chapek said. “Managing content creation distinct from distribution will allow us to be more effective and nimble in making the content consumers want most, delivered in the way they prefer to consume it. Our creative teams will concentrate on what they do best—making world-class, franchise-based content - while our newly centralized global distribution team will focus on delivering and monetizing that content in the most optimal way across all platforms, including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, and the coming Star international streaming service"
Where did this come from?
To summarize the above, Disney has just formed a new distribution team, separated its activities from the creative groups, and ordered it to focus on VOD platforms. This communication doesn't mention cinemas at all, which would be unthinkable a year ago.
You will probably say that the coronavirus pandemic, or rather its effects on the movie industry, is to blame for this. Well, yes and no. Because, on the one hand, without COVID, this wouldn't have happened, but Disney just smelled blood in the water, a sudden desire for profit, associated with Mulan, among others, which was made available on a proprietary streaming platform for an additional fee and achieved a relatively satisfactory financial result (over $30 million during the opening weekend), and certainly better than that achieved in cinemas.
This decision is no surprise when we remember the slightly delayed release of animated movie Soul, which was also moved from multiplexes to Disney+ (this time for everyone - without any additional fees). So it is to be expected that most of the original productions of this company will debut in digital form.
And who is the biggest victim of the whole situation? Poor cinemas, which are heavily dependent on superproductions, and a large part of them were published by Disney. We'll see how definitive the aforementioned changes are, but there is no doubt that the owners of the multiplexes are in a speeding truck approaching the edge of a cliff. And the driver is no one else but the merciless Mickey Mouse.
