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After multiple delays of the theatrical release of its live-action “Mulan” movie
sparked widespread debate over whether Disney would put the movie straight onto
its Disney+ service, we finally have an answer: Yes.

On the company’s Q3 earnings call on Tuesday, Disney announced “Mulan” will
forego a glitzy theatrical release entirely and hit Disney+ on Sept. 4 for a $29.99
fee—that’s on top of the $6.99 per month Disney+ subscription fee. Existing Disney+
subscribers will have to pay $29.99 to watch “Mulan,” but it’s a digital purchase, not
a rental; the movie will live in their Disney+ library for repeated viewings.

The steep $30 fee raised eyebrows at first, but Universal had enormous success in
April when it released “Trolls World Tour” as a $20 digital rental, raking more in
rental fees in three weeks than the first “Trolls” movie made in theaters in five
months. Viewers willingly paid $20 for a one-time rental; “Mulan” is $10 pricier, but
it’s a purchase. And Disney will still put “Mulan” in some theaters in markets where
Disney+ has not launched (think China).

Disney CEO Bob Chapek was careful to caution on the earnings call, “We’re looking
at ‘Mulan’ as a one-off as opposed to saying that there’s some new business
windowing model we’re looking at.”

That specific comment is a direct appeal to movie theater operators like AMC, which
were furious after what Universal did with “Trolls World Tour.” (AMC threatened
not to show Universal movies in the future.)

But the “Mulan” plan is only a “one-off” until it isn’t. If it works, Disney could do it
again—maybe almost immediately, with the Marvel movie “Black Widow,” which
has also been delayed until November theatrical release and could end up as a
Disney+ rental. Disney dominated the 2019 box office thanks to Marvel movies,
including “Avengers: Endgame,” which leapfrogged “Avatar” as the highest-grossing
box office movie ever. “Black Widow” tells the origin story of Scarlett Johansson’s
character Natasha Romanoff, a member of the Avengers.

And Julia Alexander of tech site The Verge cites a Disney+ source saying, “We’ve put
in enough work that it’s not a one-off.”