Mulan (2020)

[GeneChing]

#BoycottMulan Trends Again After Donnie Yen Celebrates Hong Kong’s Return to ‘Motherland’
Donnie Yen
Martial arts star Donnie Yen recently celebrated Hong Kong’s handover to China, sparking heavy criticism from fans and renewed calls to #BoycottMulan.



Pro-Beijing post: Yen, who plays Commander Tung in Disney’s upcoming live-action Mulan remake, becomes the film’s second cast member along with lead Liu Yifei to spark backlash from fans.

On July 1, Yen took to Facebook to mark Hong Kong’s handover day, which commemorates the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China in 1997 and the eventual establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
“Today is the celebration day for Hong Kong returned to motherland China 23 years [sic],” the Chinese-born actor wrote.
He also fondly remembered performing for Chinese President and Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping back in 2017, calling it a “memorable night.”
In Hong Kong, the anniversary of the July 1 handover is celebrated as the Establishment Day and marked with “fireworks displays, live music, and dragon dances,” according to Public Holidays HK.
It has also become the platform for political movements demanding universal suffrage.
Yen is now being criticized in Hong Kong for his opinion of Xi Jinping amid Beijing’s recent imposition of the controversial national security law.
The new law, which many views as a threat to civil liberties, has since sparked a new round of pro-democracy protests in the city.

This article has a bunch of tweets after the it. Follow the link if you're interested.

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ENTERTAINMENT
Disney delays ‘Mulan’ indefinitely, Star Wars and Avatar movies pushed back a year
PUBLISHED THU, JUL 23 20205:00 PM EDTUPDATED THU, JUL 23 20206:42 PM EDT
Sarah Whitten
@SARAHWHIT10
KEY POINTS
“Mulan” is no longer being released on Aug. 21 and is now “unset” on Disney’s calendar.
All dated Star Wars films and Avatar sequels have been pushed back one year on the calendar.
The company said that theater closures and production shutdowns during the global coronavirus pandemic caused it to make a number of adjustments to its slate.


Liu Yifei stars a Fa Mulan in Disney’s live-action adaptation of “Mulan.”
Disney

Disney is making some major changes to its release calendar that include delaying “Mulan” from its Aug. 21 release indefinitely and pushing back the debuts of future Star Wars and Avatar movies by a year.

On Thursday, the company said that theater closures and production shutdowns during the global coronavirus pandemic caused it to make a number of adjustments to its slate.

“Over the last few months, it’s become clear that nothing can be set in stone when it comes to how we release films during this global health crisis, and today that means pausing our release plans for ‘Mulan’ as we assess how we can most effectively bring this film to audiences around the world,” a Walt Disney Studios spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.

Disney shares fell slightly in after-hours trading and were down nearly 1%.

“Mulan” is currently listed as unset, meaning its release is delayed indefinitely. This is the fourth time that the live-action film has been delayed since March.

With “Mulan” vacating its August release date, there are now no Hollywood blockbuster releases set for the month. “Tenet” moved out from its August debut on Monday and has yet to announce a new release date. AT&T CEO John Stankey has promised movie theater owners that Christopher Nolan’s spy thriller will have a theatrical release.

“New Mutants” a 20th Century Fox feature in the X-Men franchise that has been delayed for the last three years, appears to still be on the calendar for Aug. 28, but depending on if movie theaters reopen next month, the film could be pushed again or be delegated to a video on-demand release.

A number of smaller, independent features are set for release in theaters. However, major theater chains like AMC may not be open to show them. Earlier Thursday, AMC announced that it has pushed back its reopening plans to mid-August after “Tenet” left the calendar. It is unclear how it will react to “Mulan” leaving as well.

AMC, like other major movie theater chains, has been closed since mid-March, awaiting a slowdown in coronavirus cases and new content from Hollywood. AMC, in particular, had been very vocal about how the pandemic could push it into bankruptcy.

Earlier this month, the exhibitor was able to reach a debt agreement that should help it remain solvent through 2021.

“Theaters will again be forced to reassess their target opening dates,” Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Boxoffice.com, said. “Archival titles can only get the market so far while the summer weather is conducive to the current drive-in boom. Studios need theaters to be open, and theaters need studios to release new product. Anytime one side of that equation budges, the other has little choice but to follow suit in this current world of uncertainty.”

Additional slate changes include:

“The Personal History of David Copperfield” moving to Aug. 28
“Death on the Nile” is now debuting on Oct. 23
“The Empty Man” will arrive on Dec. 4
“The French Dispatch” is unset
“Antlers” is now dated Feb. 19, 2021
“The Last Duel” will arrive Oct. 15, 2021
An untitled Disney Live Action film will take the place of “Avatar 2” on Dec. 16, 2021.
“Avatar 2” pushed to Dec. 16, 2022
Untitled Star Wars moved to Dec. 22, 2023
“Avatar 3” now dated Dec. 20, 2024
Untitled Star Wars redated to Dec. 19, 2025
“Avatar 4” will arrive Dec. 18, 2026
Untitled Star Wars moved to Dec. 17, 2027
“Avatar 5” now slated for Dec. 22, 2028

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[GeneChing]

Another covid heartbreaker...

Aug 4, 2020 2:00pm PT
With ‘Mulan,’ Disney Tests Out Entirely New Early VOD Model
By Adam B. Vary, Rebecca Rubin
Mulan
Courtesy of Disney

In another major blow to movie theaters, Disney announced “Mulan” will forgo its planned theatrical release. Instead, the live-action remake is premiering on Disney Plus on Sept. 4 for a premium rental price.

The company believes that the release of the action epic will help drive subscribers while serving as a valuable test case to determine how much of their hard-earned cash customers are willing to part with in order to watch a movie that was originally intended to debut exclusively in cinemas.

Unlike the rest of the content available on Disney Plus, “Mulan” won’t be available directly to subscribers. Consumers in the U.S. and other territories will have to pay $29.99 to rent the movie on top of the streaming service’s monthly subscription fee of $6.99. In markets where Disney Plus isn’t available, “Mulan” will play in cinemas.

For now, Disney’s CEO Bob Chapek says “Mulan’s” big move isn’t reflective of a new business model for the company — even though it kind of is.

“We’re looking at ‘Mulan’ as a one-off as opposed to saying there’s some new business windowing model that we’re looking at,” Chapek said Tuesday on the company’s earnings call.

Disney may be signaling to exhibitors that it’s not turning its back on cinemas and that it will respect their ability to have exclusive access to the studio’s content, but Chapek wouldn’t be so interested in testing the waters if the possibility didn’t exist that the studio would dive back into streaming with some other oft-delayed theatrical release. There’s plenty to pick from on that score. Disney has shelved a number of buzzy titles since the pandemic shuttered theaters. Tellingly, Chapek said that Disney wants to “learn from it and see the actual number of transactions.” If those numbers are good, will “Mulan” still be a one-off?

It’s also notable that the form of premium VOD that Disney is testing is very different and potentially more lucrative than others deployed by studios. “Mulan” will cost roughly $10 more than Universal charged for “Trolls World Tour” and it’s sticking the price of a subscription on top of that bill. It remains to be seen if that will be too rich for consumers at a time when unemployment is reaching Great Depression-era levels and benefits may be cut. It certainly makes “Mulan” the priciest VOD release since the failed attempt to offer 2011’s “Tower Heist” to cable subscribers for $60 three weeks after it opened. Universal, the studio behind the Ben Stiller-Eddie Murphy comedy, abandoned those plans in the wake of exhibitor upheaval.

Disney’s decision to mix things up with “Mulan” comes just days after AMC Theatres and Universal stunned investors when they announced that they had reached an agreement that would enable some movies to debut their film on home entertainment platforms within 17 days of their theatrical debut. The two companies hailed the move as an important evolution in film distribution, but other chains such as Regal and Cinemark were cool to the new model. Disney, among all of its major studio brethren, has historically been one of the staunchest allies of the theatrical experience. The announcement may have goosed its stock, but it was a drag on the shares of the major exhibitors.

The decision to put “Mulan” on premium video-on-demand further emphasizes the studio’s increased reliance on Disney Plus at a time when most of their business — from theme parks and cruises to movie theaters and retail stores — have been crippled by the pandemic. Research, Chapek says, suggests that bringing a high-profile release like “Mulan” to homes “will act as a fairly large stimulus to sign up for Disney Plus.”

Chapek added that it gives them a chance to recapture “some of our original investment” on “Mulan.” The movie cost $200 million to produce and many millions more to market and promote on a global scale. That means it will rely on ticket sales — and lots of ’em — if it hopes to turn a profit. Unlike Universal’s “Trolls World Tour,” Warner Bros.’ “Scoob” and other movies that were put on premium video-on-demand platforms in lieu of a traditional release, Disney won’t have to split in the riches from digital rentals since they own the streaming platform.

Originally scheduled to open on March 27, “Mulan” was meant to be one of Disney’s major theatrical releases for the year. The studio mounted a lavish red carpet premiere at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on March 9. But just three days later, the cascade of industry closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced Disney to postpone “Mulan’s” release. It was delayed multiple times before Disney indefinitely removed it from the release calendar last week.

It’s yet another stark indication of studios’ dwindling faith that movie theaters will be able to safely reopen in the near future, especially at the scale necessary to support mega-budgeted tentpole movies. Just before “Mulan” was pulled from Disney’s schedule, Warner Bros. removed “Tenet” from its release calendar. The sci-fi epic from Christopher Nolan is now expected to launch internationally starting on Aug. 26 before making its way to select U.S. cities on Sept. 3.

The lack of a theatrical release for “Mulan” is another setback for exhibitors, who had hoped patrons of all ages would turned out to watch the fearless Chinese warrior back on the big screen. “Tenet,” another title that movie theater owners are counting on to revive moviegoing after prolonged shutdowns, is geared toward slightly older crowds.

With sweeping battle scenes and lavishly appointed sets and costumes, Disney shelled out millions upon millions to make “Mulan” a must-see in theaters. In fact, when Disney delayed “Mulan” for the third time in June, co-chairman and chief creative officer Alan Horn and co-chairman Alan Bergman highlighted the necessity to see the film on the silver screen.

“Director Niki Caro and our cast and crew have created a beautiful, epic, and moving film that is everything the cinematic experience should be, and that’s where we believe it belongs — on the world stage and the big screen for audiences around the globe to enjoy together,” said Horn and Bergman in a statement at the time.

Based on the legend of the female Chinese warrior who disguises herself as a man to spare her infirm father from conscription into a war, “Mulan” features a breakout performance in the title role from Chinese actor Liu Yifei, and awards worthy performances from Tzi Ma (as Mulan’s father) and Gong Li (as a mysterious and complex villain). Along with “Crazy Rich Asians,” it is one of the only large-scale releases from a major Hollywood studio to feature an entirely Asian cast.

“Mulan” was always meant to be a global theatrical player, especially in China. But even though Chinese theaters have started to reopen, box office sales have been sluggish without any new content to feature.

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[GeneChing]

MOVIES
U.K. Exhibitors "Bewildered" by Disney Decision Not to Bring 'Mulan' to Cinemas
4:20 AM PDT 8/5/2020 by Alex Ritman


Courtesy of Disney
'Mulan'

Disney's shock move to scrap the theatrical release in certain markets, including the U.S. and U.K., has gone down badly with the U.K.'s already-beleaguered exhibition industry.

Exhibitors in the U.K. have reacted badly to Disney's shock decision to scrap Mulan's several-times-postponed theatrical release and take it straight to its Disney+ platform in certain markets.

The controversial new release strategy was revealed on Tuesday, with the live-action family adventure — expected to be one of the first major blockbusters to be come out as exhibitors emerge from the COVID-19 lockdown — now set to be offered to Disney+ customers in the U.S., U.K. and other select markets for the premium price of $29.99 beginning Sept. 4, forgoing cinemas in many territories altogether.

In a letter sent to British cinemas on Wednesday and seen by The Hollywood Reporter, Disney apologized for the decision, which it said was one that was "not taken lightly."

"Given that COVID-19 has disrupted large parts of the content pipeline and markets are in vastly different situations right now, and after delaying the global theatrical debut multiple times, we are subsequently taking a tailored approach to this release," it said.

However, the move to bypass cinemas altogether and not even give Mulan a day-and-date release has rattled the U.K.'s already beleaguered exhibitor industry, which had been counting on both Disney's blockbuster and Warner Bros.' Tenet — now due to launch overseas Aug. 26 — to draw back customers.

"The decision not to give cinemas a chance to play the film (even if day and date with Disney +) is frankly bewildering and something we’ve of course gone back to them on," said Phil Clapp, chief executive of the U.K. Cinema Association, in a letter set to its members and seen by THR.

In a later statement, Clapp said the move would seem a "step backwards rather than forwards" by much of the industry.

"With cinemas across the U.K. now continuing to re-open and welcome back their customers, the decision by Walt Disney Studios yesterday to put Mulan on their Disney+ service and not into cinemas will be seen by many as hugely disappointing and mistimed," he added.

"A trip to the cinema to see one of the event family films of the year would have been hugely popular, successful and a welcome escape for many after months of restrictions on out of home entertainment. It would also have provided a much needed boost for both audiences and cinemas who need a supply of new films after Christopher Nolan’s Tenet hits cinemas at the end of August."

Kevin Markwick, who owns the independent Picture House cinema in Uckfield, was more descriptive in his response, joking that he'd be homeless by the time Disney decided to return to exhibitors.

"Thanks Disney chums, we'll be here warm & waiting for you when you plan to return, having existed on thin air and love & cuddles and happy thoughts. Just give us a buzz when you are ready. I'll be sleeping in a doorway outside the bank soaked in my own wee," he tweeted. He later added: "One other thing special Disney cuddle bums, if sectors of the industry are so sure that VOD and cinemas can live together, why not let us have a bash at showing Mulan at the same time?"

Another U.K. exhibition executive said the decision was perhaps taken because Disney didn’t want to "risk cinemas refusing to play the film" if it were to be released day-and-date on Disney+. "If Disney think they don’t need cinemas anymore that’s pretty much game over for us all."


ALEX RITMAN
alex.ritman@thr.com
@alexritman

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Aug 17, 2020 12:00pm PT
Peter Chan’s Volleyball Drama ‘Leap’ to Hit China Over National Day

By Rebecca Davis


"Leap"

Peter Chan’s hotly anticipated biographical sports drama “Leap” is set to hit China on Sept. 30, becoming the first of the Chinese New Year blockbusters canceled due to COVID-19 to set a theatrical outing.

Local animation “Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification,” which was also originally scheduled to premiere over the lunar new year, will premiere the day after. They will both hit theaters over the China’s patriotic National Day holiday that begins Oct. 1, typically one of the busiest movie-going weeks of the year.

They will compete against the patriotic anthology film “My People, My Homeland,” a sequel to last National Day’s “My People, My Country,” and Chinese comedy “Coffee or Tea?,” as well as a local animated take on the classic “Mulan” legend.

The fact that major new local blockbusters are now willing to set release dates is a signal of renewed confidence in China’s box office, as cinemas slowly get back on their feet after six months of closures. Theaters are still currently only allowed to sell up to 50% of their available tickets to enable social distancing.

Seven major films were expected to release Jan. 24 over the lunar new year holiday, but all were pulled just before their premieres as COVID-19 swept the country and made mass cinema-going look less and less feasible. Theaters were officially ordered shut by authorities just afterwards.

Of those titles, “Leap” is the first to set a theatrical release date. The others include helmer Dante Lam’s “The Rescue,” Wanda’s “Detective Chinatown 3,” Stanley Tong’s Jackie Chan-starring “Vanguard” and two animations, “Jiang Ziya” and “Boonie Bears: The Wild Life.”

Xu Zheng’s “Lost in Russia,” which was thematically tied to the lunar new year holiday, stoked controversy by deciding to skip theatrical altogether and release for free via ByteDance’s video platforms, including Douyin (China’s version of TikTok), Toutiao and Watermelon video.

“Leap” tells the story of the Chinese women’s national volleyball team and their tribulations over the course of decades. It features Huang Bo (“The Island,” “Crazy Alien”) and Gong Li, who stars as the legendary coach Lang Ping.

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This is dated to prior to the pandemic really taking hold.

‘Mulan 2’ Reportedly In Early Development At Disney
Jacob Campbell POSTED ON APRIL 18, 20200



It appears that Disney has placed a lot of faith in its live-action adaptation of Mulan. According to insider Daniel Richtman, the studio is already working on a sequel to the film.

While Mulan was scheduled for release on March 27, the Coronavirus pandemic caused the film to be delayed to July 24. Most likely, Disney presumed the film would have been met with success so they would have followed up the release with the sequel announcement.

According to Richtman’s Patreon, Chris Bender, Jason Reed, and Jake Weiner will return to produce. Currently, there is no word on if Niki Caro will return to direct.

It is difficult to presume what the sequel will focus on given the first is yet to be released. The live-action remake has already deviated heavily from the animated feature, so this makes predicting the plot even more difficult.

As of now, there is no word on if the full cast will return for the sequel. Hopefully, as the release date of the first film draws closer, Disney will release more information concerning the sequel.

[GeneChing]

[GeneChing]

Aug 10, 2020 9:06pm PT
‘Mulan’ Approved for China Theatrical Release
By Rebecca Davis

Disney confirmed Monday that its live-action “Mulan” has been approved to release in Chinese cinemas “soon,” making China the most significant territory where the film will receive a theatrical outing. It has not yet been granted an official release date in the Middle Kingdom.

The U.S. company clearly tried hard to strike the right tone announcing the forthcoming premiere on its official Weibo social media account, writing in faux-poetic language that sought to mimic the original “Mulan” ballad’s traditional character.

“When the magnolia blossom opens, it lives up to its reputation and arrives as promised,” it wrote in the four-character spurts of classical verse, referencing the bloom that shares a Chinese name with the titular heroine. “[‘Mulan’’s] import is confirmed and it will soon burst into bloom in theaters; looking forward to meeting you!”

After delaying the film’s release date four times already due to COVID-19, Disney announced last week that the remake of its 1998 animated classic would release in most major territories on its streaming service Disney Plus for $29.99 starting Sept. 4. It also said it would release the film theatrically in territories where cinemas are open but Disney Plus is not currently available.

So far, “Mulan” has confirmed Sept. 4 theatrical releases in a few other Asian markets, including Singapore and Malaysia. If it hits China at the same time, that will put it in direct competition with Christopher Nolan’s hotly anticipated sci-fi epic “Tenet,” which will premiere in the mainland the same day.

An official China poster for the film issued Monday was widely ridiculed online as “ugly” and “dated,” a bad omen for a $200 million blockbuster that has gone out of its way to appeal to Chinese audiences in everything from its casting choices to story changes and set design.

“Did foreigners design this?? Is this for real??” wrote one commentator. “It looks like you messed up your Photoshop.” Another echoed the sentiment: “At first I thought this was a poster put out by some cinema itself; only after searching did I figure out that this was actually issued by Disney itself.”



A number of people had fun comparing the poster to those of B-grade local productions, saying it had the look of promo for a straight-to-streaming internet movie or soap.

“It looks just like an anti-Japanese war drama,” one wrote, likening it to a popular type of downmarket television typically put on by middle-aged housewives as background noise to accompany their chores.

The chosen old-school font solicited a particular Comic Sans-esque cringe. To the native eye, the calligraphic text is more reminiscent of early 2000s communal notices put up in residential compounds to remind people to take out their trash than Northern Wei dynasty poetry.

One person laughed that the font was “so low-brow it’s like picking your foot in public.” Another commented: “It’s even worse than the [animated ‘Mulan’] poster 22 years ago. Unbelievable that in this day and age you could still see such an outdated font design coming from Disney.”



The dismay echoes the feeling of disappointment at the Western company’s take on Chinese culture that many expressed when they got their first glimpse of the “Mulan” trailer — only to find that the northern-dwelling heroine appears to have grown up in a round house typical of the southern, coastal Hakka people living more than a thousand years after the period when her story is set.

Overall, however, the poster backlash didn’t stop most Chinese comments from expressing keen excitement at the prospect of catching “Mulan” in theaters. “Hurry up and figure out your mainland release date — my wallet is already at the ready!!!” one posted.

Another wrote: “I’m just so happy it’s finally confirmed! I’ve been waiting for this since 2018.”

A few commentators said they were still wary to re-enter cinemas because of COVID-19, or that their local multiplex had not yet reopened in the wake of the pandemic.

China’s box office performance has been middling since cinemas reopened on July 20, with many viewers apparently preferring to stay home in wait of newer, more exciting titles.

“Mulan” might be just the one to do the trick and revive the embattled Chinese exhibition sector. “Thank goodness, thank goodness! It was postponed indefinitely again and again, but fortunately our country did a good job with preventing and controlling the coronavirus, so we can go to the cinemas and see it!” an excited super-fan of lead actress Liu Yifei exclaimed. Indeed, China reported just 49 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, while the U.S. reported 48,769.

Yet even should Chinese cinemas get more firmly back on their feet by the time “Mulan” releases, the title could face a nationalist backlash in the world’s second-largest film market as ties between the U.S. and China continue to rapidly deteriorate.

The seeds of this are already brewing online, where numerous users posting about “Mulan” have called for a boycott of American films.

“I’ll support the film online, but forget about going to see it in theaters,” one wrote. “Even if the money I spend is just a drop in the bucket, I don’t want a cent of my money making its way into the pockets of American companies.”

Mulan is getting a theatrical release in China.

[GeneChing]

When covid first struck, I thought it would hobble the rise of China's film industry. Now it looks like it was just what was needed to eclipse Hollywood.

Aug 27, 2020 7:05pm PT
China Is World’s First Market to Achieve Full Box Office Recovery, Says Analytics Firm
By Rebecca Davis


The Eight Hundred
Courtesy of Huayi Bros

China this week became the first global market to make a “full box office recovery” according to targets developed by the U.K.-based film industry analytics firm Gower Street, the company said Thursday.

The firm created five targets to track and compare the paths of different territories’ exhibition sectors back to recovery. The indicators move from stage one — a point when a significant majority (80%) of cinemas are ready to resume operations — to stage five, in which business over the course of a week is equivalent to that of the top quartile of weekly earnings from the past two years.

After reaching this stage five goal, a particular market “should react as normal, with an ebb and flow dependent on the release calendar,” Gower Street explained.

To reach that target, post-COVID China needed to generate a weekly box office of $184 million (RMB1.27 billion). According to data from Comscore Movies, China hit this target just five days into the week starting Friday, Aug. 21, having taken in $189 million (RMB1.31 billion) by the end of the day Tuesday.

China’s national box office for the full week was $252 million (RMB1.74 billion), more than 18% greater than that of the equivalent week in 2019, which saw earnings of around $209 million (RMB1.44 billion).

More than 90% of Chinese cinemas by market share are now open, although they continue to operate with capacity restrictions allowing them to sell only half their available tickets.

Despite these limitations, China’s performance stands out worldwide at a time when nearly 65% of global cinemas by market share are now back in business in the wake of COVID-19 closures, up from 55% a week ago, Gower Street said.

The global box office so far in 2020 is just $6.88 billion, a fraction of the $27.2 billion three year average year to date score. Nevertheless, sales are increasing, with the $200 million collected globally this week marking a rise of 54% from the one previous. China, said Gower Street, was “undoubtedly the driver” of this growth.

This week’s success was due to massive sales for local war film “The Eight Hundred,” as well as Tuesday’s Qixi Festival, a type of Chinese Valentine’s day, which saw the release of popular local time-travel rom-com “Love You Forever,” which grossed more than $39 million on its opening day.

Giving the box office a further mid-week boost, local romantic drama “Wild Grass” and Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-winning “Little Women” also premiered Tuesday, debuting to the tune of $5.5 million and $1.5 million on day one, respectively, according to data from Maoyan.

This week’s box office tally accounts for nearly a third of all ticket sales in China to date this year, with “The Eight Hundred” alone accounting of 27% of the national 2020 box office as of Wednesday. The film has grossed $210 million (RMB1.45 billion) and Maoyan now projects a total of $459 million (RMB3.16 billion).

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The Chinese market’s revival comes just in time for Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” which is set to further galvanize recovery once it premieres in the country on Sept. 4. A re-release of his “Inception” will compete with “The Eight Hundred” once it hits cinemas on Friday.

Disney’s “Mulan” has yet to receive an official release date in the territory, but is expected to hit theaters in the near future.

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Mulan Releases To All Disney+ Subscribers For Free in December [UPDATED]
Mulan will become available to all Disney+ subscribers in December, just three months after its theatrical and Premier Access streaming release.
BY XAVIER ILYAS
4 DAYS AGO



UPDATE: Disney+ has since removed the December date from its Mulan pre-order page. Our original story continues below.

Disney's Mulan will become available to all Disney+ subscribers in December. The film, a live-action remake of Disney's 1998 animated classic of the same name, has had a continuously shifting release date. Like every big theatrical release in 2020, Mulan faced delays due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The film had its premiere on March 9, 2020, and was originally set to have its wide release on March 27. However, with social distancing guidelines in place and the closure of movie theaters around the world, the film was delayed. First to July 2020 and then again to August, before Disney removed it from their release schedule altogether.

Disney then announced Mulan would be available for purchase on Disney+ starting on September 4, 2020. The film would also release theatrically in markets where cinemas are allowed to operate and where Disney+ isn't available. The film will cost a relatively steep $30 on the streaming platform, but it would be a permanent purchase, not a rental. There was widespread speculation on when the film would be available for free on Disney+. Based on the release of films like Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Frozen II, it was safe assumption that Disney+ wouldn't see a free version of Mulan on the streaming platform until mid-2021, but that does not appear to be the case.

According to the pre-order page for the movie, Mulan will release for all Disney+ subscribers on December 4, 2020. This news marks the fastest that a major film has gone from its theatrical release to being streamed (for free) on Disney+, with only three months between the two. You can see a screenshot of Mulan's Disney+ page, below:

While the announcement of Mulan's direct-to-Disney+ release has been good for Disney stock, the reception from both fans and theater-owners has been mixed. With movie theaters already being one of the hardest hit businesses during the pandemic, theater owners have been particularly upset by Disney's release plans for Mulan. Fans have also expressed their disappointment, citing how similar Disney blockbusters like Black Widow will still have a typical theatrical release (Disney has stated that they intend Mulan's Disney+ release to be a one-off, although who knows what will happen if it is a success), arguing that locking Mulan behind a paywall is a determent to the film and its intended audience. Given that Mulan will be the first Disney-branded film will an all Asian cast, making the film less accessible at open seems like a step backward for representation in Hollywood.

Disney's decision to release a major film on its streaming service so soon after its theatrical window is unprecedented. Depending on how successful the film is at bringing in new Disney+ subscribers, this decision could pose huge implications for the future of cinemas and release structures. Given how close its non-Premiere Access release will be to its theatrical one, there is a pretty good chance that this will negatively affect Mulan's theatrical sales. There are many arguments for why Mulan wouldn't work on Disney+, but given how unprecedented this whole situation is, no one can really predict how successful the film will or won't be. Given how many theaters around the world can't operate at full capacity, and major cities in the U.S. like New York and Los Angeles still aren't allowing theaters to open, distributors have to find new ways to deliver their films to consumers. It is unknown whether or not we will eventually return to a typical release structure, but the success or failure of Mulan on Disney+ will certainly be a important factor for future cinema releases.

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My latest feature for Den of Geek: The Many Obstacles of Mulan



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'Mulan' Sets Sail on Historic Dual PVOD-Theatrical Journey
2:38 PM PDT 9/2/2020 by Pamela McClintock


Courtesy of Disney Enterprises Publicity

Niki Caro's live-action adaptation of the classic Disney animated film stars Chinese actress Liu Yifei.

Disney's Mulan sets sail over Labor Day weekend on a historic dual premium VOD-theatrical journey as Hollywood struggles to rebound from the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic by testing new release models.

The live-action adaptation of the classic animated pic will be made available to Disney+ subscribers in the U.S. and select international markets on Sept. 4 at a premium price. Those paying to watch the film will have access to it for as long as they remain customers of the streaming service. In the U.S., the cost is $29.99. In addition to the U.S., Mulan will be made available to Disney+ customers in Canada, New Zealand, Australia and many Western European countries at at varying price points.

Additionally, the studio announced Tuesday that Mulan will be made available to all Disney+ members at no extra charge on Dec. 4.

Key territories where Mulan will play on the big screen include Russia (Sept. 10), China (Sept. 11), and South Korea (Sept. 17).

Hopes are especially high for China, where the box office is rebounding in a major way. The war epic The Eight Hundred crossed the $300 million mark on Wednesday despite capacity being limited to 50 percent across the Middle Kingdom.

Niki Caro directed the adventure epic that stars Liu Yifei as Mulan, a young Chinese woman who disguises herself as a man to spare her elderly father from military service.

This weekend, Mulan opens theatrically in a number of smaller international territories, including Croatia, the Czech Rep, the Middle East, Slovakia, Turkey, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

Like Christopher Nolan's Tenet, Mulan was forced to delay its debut on the big screen numerous times due to COVID-19 (it was originally set to launch in late March). In August, Disney ultimately decided to scrap a traditional theatrical release in favor of an dual model that is unprecedented for a Hollywood tentpole.

Both event pics cost $200 million to produce before marketing, meaning they will have to gross hundreds of millions to land in the black. Tenet is staying the course and will open in U.S. theaters on Sept. 3 after debuting to a better than expected $53 million-plus internationally last weekend, including Canada.

The U.S. lags much of the rest of the world in terms of theater reopenings. And it is still not clear when theaters can flip on the lights in Los Angeles and New York City, the country's two largest moviegoing markets.

Disney's revamped plan for Mulan was a major blow for the exhibition business, which was counting on playing both that film and Tenet. (Of all the major Hollywood studios, Disney had been viewed as the biggest proponent of theatrical windows.)

It is the first time Disney has offered a film on Disney+ at a top-tier price, thus creating its own premium video-on-demand service at a time when PVOD is gaining strength across the industry because of the pandemic.

Universal Pictures became the first major studio in the COVID-19 era to break the theatrical window when announcing in March that Trolls World Tour — which had been set for an early April release — would instead be made available to rent on PVOD for 48 hours for $19.99. Any theaters that remained open were also offered the film, although by April, most theaters across the globe were dark.

Since then, a number of Hollywood films have gone straight to PVOD in the U.S. Mulan is unique in that it could do big box office business in the markets where it is playing theatrically, such as China and the rest of Asia.

The Disney film also stars veteran Hong Kong and Chinese actors Jet Li, Gong Li and Donnie Yen, along with Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Ron Yuan, Tzi Ma, Rosalind Chao, Cheng Pei-Pei, Nelson Lee and Chum Ehelepola. Veteran Hong Kong hitmaker Bill Kong (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Monster Hunt) served as a creative consultant and executive producer on the film.

Unlike box office grosses, Hollywood studios don't have to report PVOD numbers. NBCUniversal brass have said that Trolls World Tour made $100 million in the U.S. but haven't elaborated further.

Speaking to investors in August, Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek stressed that Mulan is a "one-off" and shouldn't be taken to mean that the company is looking to permanently alter theatrical windowing. "That said," Chapek added, "we find it very interesting to be able to take a new offering to consumers at that $29.99 price and learn from it and see what happens not only in terms of the uptick of the number of subscribers we got on the platform, but also the number of transactions we get on that PVOD offering."


PAMELA MCCLINTOCK
pamela.mcclintock@thr.com
@thr

I don't have Disney+. I need to find someone nearby who does. I'd pay the $30 for a socially-distanced local subscriber friend.

[GeneChing]

My latest feature for Den of Geek: Mulan: The Real History of the Chinese Legend