Hello and welcome,
The recent big WB and HBO Max announcement that all the WB movies this year will be going to HBO Max as well in movie theaters on “day and date”. Many people are asking why not Disney? Why isn't Disney doing the same thing with all of their movies and sending them to Disney+? It is not an easy question to answer but I will do my best. At the Disney Investor Day during the Q&A session Disney CEO, Bob Chapek was asked why they are not following the HBO model. He replied, “we made 13 billion dollars at the box office last year (2019) and that is nothing to sneeze at”.
Just to be clear, Disney is doing premier access for Raya and the Last Dragon (I still have my doubts about the viability of the release model) however, they did not do this for all of their movies. One big reason why they are not doing this is that WB is in a PR nightmare. To explain this in a simple way the movie business is about ‘who you know’ (that is the reason why I haven't been cast in a Marvel movie). WB has pretty much ticked off everybody they know which is not a good thing when you're running a business that depends on who you know and also they may also be in some legal trouble as well. With that said, what Chapek said about making 13 billion dollars at the box office I'm not sure if he was referring to the profits or total box office gross, but either way, it was very good. In 2019 Disney had 7 movies that joined the billion-dollar club (Captain Marvel, Aladdin, Avengers: Endgame, Toy Story 4, The Lion King, Frozen II, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker). 8 if you count Spider-Man: Far From Home but that is technically a Sony movie. In 2018 Disney had 3 movies that made a billion dollars (Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Incredibles 2).
Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that the movie theaters never truly bounce back but another thing to keep in mind is that 80% of what people watch on Netflix is licensed content and not original, and although I am not privy to the information, I would estimate that it is the same, if not higher, that most people are watching library content on Disney+ (Licensed/library content is, for the sake of simplification, is content not made for the service). As of right now, Disney has plenty of library content still to add to the service, but eventually, they will hit a ceiling if they stop sending things to theaters and all they can put on would be original. Just to be clear this probably went through Chapek’s mind but I am sure that this is not the main reason and will simply be a minor annoyance rather than anything else. Another big reason, and another thing that Chapek said, is that theaters build franchises. To explain my point, can any of my readers think of a Netflix franchise that could rival any of the big screen franchises? Theaters also oftentimes keep things in conversation, for example, with Infinity War people were talking about the ending right up until Endgame came out and now both movies have entered into the pop culture zeitgeist. If those movies had simply been dropped on a streaming service the impact would have been questionable. Remember when Netflix released Bird Box and that movie got the internet talking for a good month or so but then the conversation died.
Now you might be thinking about the Mandalorian which has made a big impact for Disney+, but this series is based on Star Wars and Star Wars is a multibillion-dollar franchise for Disney. 4 out of the 5 Star Wars movies that Disney released made a billion dollars and the solo one that did not was Solo (sorry, I could not resist). Of all time only one of the Star Wars movies that did not turn a profit was Solo. Imagine if the Mandalorian was entirely original, would it be as much of a hit? One thing is for sure, Baby Yoda merchandise would not be flying off the shelves. One of the biggest reasons and I am sure Disney knows this, is that the pandemic will end and one thing to keep in mind is the era that immediately followed the 1918 pandemic was the roaring 20’s (the Great Depression did follow the roaring 20’s but we can skip that part). There are reasons to believe that after this pandemic we will have similar events and chances are that it will help the theaters (providing they can stay afloat).
My last point is that the difference between the number of HBO Max subscribers and Disney+ subscribers is staggering and Disney does not need that much help. One thing to keep in mind is that I do not have any insider information so all of this is my own conjecture.
Goodnight, and Bee Happy!™
Mr. Bee
copyright 2021 Bradley Entertainment All rights belong to Mr. Bee and if anybody breaks this copyright they will have to spend ten years as my personal slave, and thanks for your understanding.
image courtesy of The Walt Disney Company
