's release of the highly anticipated live-action version of Mulan on the Disney+ platform is a huge risk for Disney. So has the box office of "Mulan" succeeded?
Disney's latest live-action remake of "Mulan" premiered on Disney+, with mixed reviews and a 68% increase in subscribers to the streaming service. Can it be considered a box office success? After delaying the release of "Mulan" in theaters in March 2020 due to the effects of the coronavirus, Disney announced that Mulan will premiere exclusively on its streaming service Disney+ in September. Unlike other Disney+ exclusive movies "Lady and the Tramp" or "Artemis Fowl" (also translated: Artemis Fantasy Adventure), only subscribers who pay $29.99 Watch "Mulan".
Although "Mulan" has received divergent reviews and calls to boycott the film, Disney reported that the number of downloads of Disney+ has increased by 68% due to the release of the film. In addition, user spending on the Disney+ app has increased by 193%, mainly because of the need to pay to watch "Mulan". Despite the increase in subscribers, "Mulan" lacks a traditional release method, and the box office at the premiere weekend was disappointing. In addition, compared with another closely watched Disney+ musical "Hamilton", "Mulan" performed poorly. Before its premiere, Disney+ platform users increased by 74%.
It is hard to say whether "Mulan" is Disney's box office success or failure, just like the much criticized live-action remake of "Dumbo", premiered in 2019, and the premiere box office reached 45 million US dollars. There have been mixed reviews and controversies surrounding this movie, and its box office is the most disappointing one of the Disney live-action remakes. "Mulan" may not get back the budget of more than 200 million US dollars, but the film performed well on the weekend of its release. Compared with other live-action remakes of Disney, "Mulan" looks like a failure on the surface, but is it a success for Disney+?
"Mulan" performance on Disney+ platform
After postponing the initial release time of "Mulan", Disney announced that the film will premiere exclusively on Disney+. Disney+ subscribers must pay an additional one-time fee of $29.99 in exchange for the premiere opportunity to watch the film, and it will be permanently added to their streaming library. Disney+’s initial subscriptions increased by 68%, and subscriber spending increased by 193% due to the increase in premiere fees. "Mulan" earned a total of $35.5 million from Disney+ subscribers during its premiere weekend. Since the movie was not shown in theaters, the US$35.5 million is completely Disney’s net profit, and Disney does not have to pay any additional distribution fees.
"Mulan" was released on Disney+ (Disney+), immediately became a popular movie on the site, and has a 15% audience share in all the movies on all streaming services that weekend. Simply put, this means that 15% of people are watching "Mulan" on weekends. Early data shows that "Mulan" was watched by 1.12 million families during its premiere weekend. Although Hamilton surpassed "Mulan" with 2.7 million households in the first weekend, Hamilton can watch it without any additional fees.
"Mulan"'s box office performance
Disney hopes that the release of "Mulan" in China can make up for the issue of the US market, but the film’s premiere weekend performance was disappointing, with a box office of only 23.2 million US dollars. Compared with other live-action remakes of Disney, "Mulan" is not successful internationally; "Beauty and the Beast" earned $85 million during its premiere weekend in China, followed by " Fantasy Forest ", Income of 55 million US dollars. In order to make "Mulan" more faithful to the folk music poem "Mulan Ci" and attract more Chinese audiences, Disney made several changes, but these efforts seem to be in vain. The failure of
"Mulan" can be attributed to the disconnection between the all-white creative team and the Chinese cast, and the publicity activities disconnected from the audience. In the Disney live-action remake, "Mulan" box officeNot the worst-"Dumbo" made only $11 million during its premiere weekend-considering Disney's promotional expenses, this is a big failure. There are also a number of movies released during the same period, and audiences can choose from several other movies, including "Tenet", which premiered at a box office of $50 million on weekends, far surpassing "Mulan".
Is "Mulan" a success for Disney+?
Before the musical "Hamilton" was released, Disney+ had a significant increase in downloads, but due to the additional cost of watching the movie, "Mulan" had much higher profits. From the perspective of traditional box office indicators, "Mulan" was unsuccessful. Its premiere box office was the lowest among Disney's live-action remakes, and the film could not recover its budget of more than $200 million. This film was also a failure overseas. The international box office was disappointing, and it performed poorly in the Chinese market. Disney actively promoted the film in the Chinese market to make up for its domestic failure.
Despite this, "Mulan" is still a successful work of Disney+, greatly increasing the number of subscribers and proving that nearly 100,000 people will pay an additional $30 to watch the film. After Liu Yifei commented on the Hong Kong protests, "Mulan" encountered calls to boycott the film, and dissuaded American audiences by tailoring the beloved songs and characters of the animated version of "Mulan". It still earns $35.5 million from streaming media. If "Mulan" can get the same premier weekend box office when it premieres in theaters, it will be a huge commercial failure, and it will also be the worst live-action film remade by Disney, which is tied with "Maleficent 2". Because "Mulan" only premiered on Disney+, the total box office is considerable, and it is also a sign that movies that premiere on streaming media can still be successful in the future.
"Mulan" is not the first movie to be released in theaters to Disney+, but it is the first movie that requires an extra charge. Although "Mulan" will be released for free in December 2020, it still brings a net profit of $35.5 million for Disney. Although "Mulan" performed disappointingly at the Chinese box office, its success on Disney+ proved that Disney was right to change the premiere to a streaming service. If more studios follow suit, the success of "Mulan" may bring disaster to movie theaters, because the traditional theater distribution model only supports streaming movies. Although it is not as good as other Disney live-action remakes, Disney+ still achieved great success in "Mulan".
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