Last week, The Walt Disney Studios announced updates to its upcoming film release schedule. With movie theaters around the world closed indefinitely due to the global health crisis, Disney postponed many release dates and even announced the new live-action feature film Artemis Fowl would debut exclusively on Disney+.
Today, Executive Chairman Bob Iger told Barrons in an interview that other films could also be sent directly to the streaming service, if the current situation continues.
“There are some we’ve decided to put on Disney+. We already announced one, Artemis Fowl, that would have been released in theaters,” Iger told Barron’s in a recent interview. “Others we’ve simply delayed. In some cases we’ve moved things onto Disney+ faster than we would have. Frozen 2 was one of them, but Onward would be the biggest example. It was in theaters when this happened. We moved to a pay-per-view period for a couple of weeks where people could buy it and own it. And then we ended up putting it on Disney+.”
“In terms of movies going ahead after Artemis, there may be a few more that we end up putting directly onto Disney+, but for the most part a lot of the big tentpole Disney films, we’ll simply wait for slots. In some cases we’ve announced new ones already, but later on in the calendar.”
It’s unlikely big titles like Mulan and Black Widow, which are massive money makers for the studio, would head directly to Disney+ but other films such as Marvel’s New Mutants or The One and Only Ivan might now be seen as good choices for the streaming service. What film would you like to see released directly to Disney+?