Despite the company’s strong growth in streaming, Disney has decided to release a couple films later this year exclusively to theaters.
Both Free Guy, a video game-inspired flick, and Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings, are getting a 45-day exclusive theatrical window, the company said in a Thursday earnings call.
Free Guy will arrive on August 13th while Shang-Chi is landing on September 3rd. By that time, Disney expects more consumers will feel comfortable re-entering theaters.
The decision is a departure from Disney’s current film release plan. The movies Black Widow, Cruella and Jungle Cruise will be arriving in the next three months, but the company is releasing them both in theaters and on Disney+ as a $29.99 paid add-on.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek said he hopes the three films will “reprime” the market and revive interest in the movie-theater experience.
“We’re trying to monitor are consumers ready to go back into theaters. Of course, 90 percent of let’s say the domestic market place is open right now, and we’re encouraged in terms of polling,” Chapek said during the earnings call.
“But if you look at last weekend’s box office, for example, and you compare it versus an average of the last three years pre-COVID box office, it was 85 percent below,” he added. “So we know the market isn’t quite there yet.”
Disney’s decision is good news for cinema chains, such as AMC Theatres, which almost went bankrupt during the pandemic. But it may annoy some consumers, who prefer watching films at home. Currently, Disney+ has 103.6 million subscribers worldwide.
Nevertheless, the 45-day theatrical window is shorter than the typical 70-day window. The Mickey Mouse company plans on monitoring the theatrical market to determine its movie release strategy going forward.