Why Did Mulan Release on Disney+ but Not Black Widow

Instead of waiting for the global health pandemic to calm down and release the movie in theatres, Disney found it better to release Mulan on its online streaming platform Disney+ directly. But they do not seem to have the same plans for Black Widow. Maybe they have a valid reason to choose Mulan’s live-action recreation for online streaming and not the Marvel movie. In a time where Hollywood movies have either halted or scrapped projects altogether because of the lack of certainty of the future, the movies that were complete have to wait for a theatrical release since there are no open cinema halls right now. Some productions decided it to be a better idea to release their movies on streaming platforms and expect a positive response. The primary plan was to release Mulan in the last week of March this year, but Disney kept pushing forward the date, keeping the hopes of people up.

The movie first rescheduled its release on the 24th of July and then pushed it to the 21st of August, but maybe Disney realized these attempts were futile. The latest announcement by Disney stated that the 1998 animation’s recreation would be available for people to stream for an extra 30 US Dollars. The audience is speculating that once Mulan releases on the small screens, Disney’s other upcoming projects may follow suit and release on their online platform instead of the big screens. One such pending project is MCU’s Black Widow that was supposed to hit the theatres in May 2020 and begin the MCU’s fourth phase. But ironically, that is not the case, and no such plans exist for Black Widow’s release.

There is a concrete reason for this decision. Mulan and Black Widow have a very different target audience. Disney did not originally plan to let Mulan stream on Disney+ but pushing release dates for theatres was doing them no good. Pushing the movie any further would have also proved financially incorrect since they have more projects pending for the remainder of this year whose future is unknown as well. Coronavirus has affected all plans that kids made for the summer of 2020, so it was a good chance to see their favorite female warrior princess on Disney+ while being confined to their homes. And Disney knew that even if they waited for the theatres to open and released the movie immediately, it would not have been a smart move since the movie prominently caters to kids. The parents will not risk their child’s health by taking them to busy theatres.

But the same does not apply for Black Widow. The addition of MCU to Disney was one of the biggest boosts and profit possibilities that the latter acquired. The company knew that the film would be tempting and exciting enough to lure people into watching them in theatres. The movie already has made a base with its relation to previous Marvel movies, and people will be more motivated to watch this movie rather than Mulan. Disney has other Marvel shows lined up for releases like WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and they are just patiently waiting for the shooting and post-production to wrap up.

Source:-  Mulan Release on Disney+ but Not Black Widow