I wasn't trying to invalidate his point. I was dismissing it.
News Disney's Live Action Mulan
- Thread starter JD
- Start date
In nearly every case (movie, music, ebook, comic), unless put out by an indy company, you pay for the right to use the material as long as the company gives it to you--the company can change and alter the material at will--so you don't own digital materials, you just rent them with a one time fee.
A lot of his complaint, which I agree with, is terminology. If they're going to say I own something digital, I better be able to download it to a storage drive and watch it offline whenever I want. Otherwise it is just a rental, and should be described as such.
We smuggle in our own candy, and get $1.50 refills for our pop, so I think by the time my mom and I are out of the theater we've spent maybe $15 - $20.
Yep.
I smuggle in treats from time to time but as soon as that heavenly buttery popcorn aroma hits my nostrils upon arrival, I’m a goner. 
Exactly this. And a $30 rental is a rip-off no matter the film.
But they are not pricing this as a normal digital purchase. They are pricing this to replicate the revenue they would typically get from a theatrical release which would typically involve a family paying $15ish per family member. This is not a typical "release on home video" release, I would imagine it is an experiment from Disney to see if this method has any financial upside for them. I don't know whether it will work, whether people will balk at paying the $30, but at the very least people should stop trying to compare this to a standard home video release. It isn't.
With much lower budgets and much lower expectations for return. The first Trolls did $346 million worldwide. Artemis Fowl? Kids movie, let's ballpark expectations at $300-$400 million worldwide. Everything else I can think of was either a small to mid-budget film which weren't going to bring in a heck of a lot in their theatrical run, or movies already released in theaters trying to recoup some of their lost theater revenue and make the best of a bad situation.. Compared to The Lion King live action remake which made $1.7 billion, the Aladdin live action remake which made $1 billion, Beauty and the Beast which made $1.2 billion, Even The Jungle Book made just shy of $1 billion. I don't know what Mulan's budget is, but based on the previous live action remakes I'm going to peg it at $175-200 million dollars. They want to find a way to make a billion dollars off of digital home release. There's a reason Black Widow isn't being treated this way, or Universal pushed Fast and the Furious 9 until next year. The numbers on these movies are too big to "waste" on a standard home video release. Can it be done? I don't know, but this is the gamble Disney is taking, to release one of their billion dollar tentpoles as a home release. They are trying to maximize the possible purchase dollars. Again, I don't know if it is going to succeed, but I understand where Disney is coming from.
Well, then they should have released as a general paid rental. The $30 is only half of what annoys me with this, it's the fact that they are charging that on top of a subscription. The whole fucking point of the subscription is so I don't have to pay individually for these kinds of movie.
If they want to make money of it individually they should just release it through the paid rental services like Amazon and ITunes.
If they want to make money of it individually they should just release it through the paid rental services like Amazon and ITunes.
Yup.
The reason for that is the same: they are trying to recpature as much revenue as possible to approximate a blockbuster theatrical run. If they release it through iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Fandango, etc, they have to give the digital storefront a piece of the generated revenue AND builds the Disney+ brand. On Disney+ they get to keep 100% of the revenue. It's also my least favorite part of this because I find the Disney+ app on Android TV to be flaky, especially in 4k. I was trying to watch Age of Ultron and it would error out every so often. Ultimately we switched to Google Play Movies which gave us a flawless experience.
They've announced that Mulan will be free to Disney+ subscribers starting in December. So I guess that means I'll be watching it in December.
Well there goes their leverage. If we can wait months for its release we can wait another 3 months for it to be free.
As the old saying goes, "Good things come to those who wait." In this case, the good thing, at the very least, will be saving $30.
As the old saying goes, "Good things come to those who wait." In this case, the good thing, at the very least, will be saving $30.
I feel no urgent need to see it anyway so 3 more months is nothing.
But there's part of the issue. I have no trouble shelling out $20-25 for a movie on Blu-Ray if it's one I know I want to have a physical copy of. Mulan, while the trailers look awesome and I do really want to see it, is probably not high on the list of something I want on disc. Now all that said, the $30+ I'd pay to see at the theater would be more likely because I love going to the theater. At home, it's just not the same experience. And yes, I'm all about the movie theater popcorn. I have to admit that's something I've really been missing. DIY popcorn just isn't the same, in my opinion.