Disney+ was home to a special release: Marvel movie Black Widow was released on the streaming service as well as in theaters. And Disney turned out to have done no harm, so that times may change a lot when it comes to movie releases.
Black Widow like so many other Disney films, it was also shown on Disney+ last year. There you now pay 21.99 euros for the release to view it. In the end, 2 million of the 103 million worldwide subscribers took advantage of the opportunity, bringing the earning to about $60 million.
A nice success
The release of Black Widow in the cinema was also a success. Black Widow grossed $80 million in its opening weekend, making a total of $200 million when you factor in worldwide and Disney+ revenue.
That made it a great debut for a Marvel film. Analyst Eric Handler tells The Hollywood Reporter “that it’s a great amount to show people. It’s a psychological amount.”
According to him and other analysts with whom The Hollywood Reporter spoke, Disney may decide to use the VIP access model more often with film releases. This has mainly to do with the fact that the profit almost entirely ends up with the studio, where one has to share the revenue from the cinema with the operator and distributor.
To continue or not?
Disney has indicated in the past that it wants to continue with regular releases next year. The production company would not immediately plan to continue with VIP access. But these kinds of releases show that the studio is not doing any harm.
“If the pie is big enough to deliver $158.8 million at the box office worldwide and another $60 million in streaming, it shows that consumers like choice,” according to analyst Paul Dergarabedian. He thinks it might just be that Disney will reconsider its choice. “The marketplace is still changing”. Another anonymous source: “This is going to shake up the industry and cause problems. Talent and cinemas certainly won’t be happy about it.”
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