Disney is evaluating its movie releases on a case by case basis amid COVID-19 Pandemic
Written by Rev Noni on May 6, 2020
Disney has said that it is not giving up on it’s upcoming movie releases but that it’s going to carefully evaluate its options going forward. Cinemas have been forced to close in order to adhere to social distancing restrictions and this has greatly affected many movie releases.
Many studios have pushed back major blockbuster films to later in the year or to 2021 while some films have opted to go straight to on-demand or to a streaming platform.
“We very much believe in the value of the theatrical experience overall to launch blockbuster movies,” Disney CEO Bob Chapek, said.
“As you know we had seven $1 billion films in calendar 2019, but we also realized that either because of changing and evolving consumer dynamics, or because of certain situations like Covid, we may have to make some changes to that overall strategy just because theaters aren’t open, or aren’t open to the extent that anybody needs to be financially viable. So we’re going to evaluate each one of our movies on a case by case situation, as we are doing right now, during this coronavirus situation,” he added.
Disney has moved all of its theatrical releases to new dates on the movie calendar, save for “Artemis Fowl,” which will arrive exclusively on Disney+ later this month.
“I think you know that is moving over to Disney+ given the demographic appeal of that film, which was not originally the plan, but all our other tent-pole movies have been rescheduled theatrically later in year so we very much believe in the power of that launch platform for our big movies,” Chapek said.
The first movie Disney will release in theaters once they reopen is “Mulan” slated for July 24. “There’s a competitive movie (Tenet by Warner Bros) that opens up one week before our film does and at that point we’re hoping that there’s some return to semblance of normal in terms of number of screens that are opening and number of show times for those movies,” Chapek said. “So, our fingers are crossed,” he added.
