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Column by Lauren Wolters
Woltersl1@findlay.edu
If you love female empowerment, great battle scenes, and Disney movies, get excited because the new Mulan movie hit the box offices Sept. 4. Actually, it hit no box offices because The Walt Disney Company has decided to only showcase the film on their nearly new streaming service, Disney Plus. The company also decided that the film is worth much more than the normal $6.99, monthly subscription to Disney plus. The film will be available to Disney plus subscribers following payment of the monthly subscription and a Premier Access payment of $29.99. This totals to $36.98, when a weekend night movie ticket at the AMC movie theater is $13.69. This price discrepancy has left many with two basic questions: Is Disney charging too much? And should they skip out on Disney’s supposedly latest and greatest film? My answer to both questions is, yes.
Mulan is a highly anticipated film, being the live action remake for the 1998 animated Disney film. The expected release date for the 2020 Mulan was nearly six months ago, March 27. Little did the producers know when they set this date that the world would be amid a global pandemic on March 27. This pandemic has left little room for occasions like movie premieres.
However, The Walt Disney Company persistently tried to keep Mulan on the movie market. They pushed the date back to July 24, and then again to Aug. 21. Eventually, the company found a way to share its latest movie with the whole world through its streaming service, Disney plus. Of course, if the whole world wants to enjoy the film, they will have to fork over $29.99, and that doesn’t include overpriced movie theater popcorn. This is also assuming that the individual already has a subscription to Disney Plus which costs $6.99 a month.
The $29.99 gives the viewer Premier Access, meaning that they can watch Mulan over and over again, while ordinary Disney Plus members have no access to it until December 4 when the film is scheduled to become available to all subscribers. The world has waited six months for the new and anticipated live action Mulan movie, so I think it should have no problem waiting two and half more when they can pay $6.99 instead of $36.98.
Because after paying $36.98, the viewer can watch Mulan as many times as he or she wishes, makes Disney’s price seem a little more reasonable. Even so, Disney’s release plan for Mulan seems to be full of greedy intentions. It’s left me wondering whether the producers of the jovial mouse have used some of their Disney magic to turn themselves into pigs. However, like COVID-19 greed is contagious, so I’m inclined to believe that other production companies will follow Disney’s lead for their own upcoming movies.
Soon the world will be subscribing to countless streaming services and paying $30 to watch all the new movie releases. This is a future I am eager to avoid. For this reason, I’m waiting to watch Mulan at least until Dec. 4. I encourage you to do the same. Mushu isn’t in it anyway.
