Last week, Disney unveiled it’s completely redone 2020/2021 film release schedule, as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced Hollywood’s biggest studio to shuffle things around. And while most people were, rightfully, concerned to see what happened with “Black Widow,” Indiana Jones 5,” and “The French Dispatch,” among others, perhaps the biggest news story is the fate of “Artemis Fowl” and what it means for the future of Disney and the theatrical experience.
After being delayed a few times already, “Artemis Fowl” is the first Disney blockbuster to lose its theatrical release in favor of a straight-to-streaming future on Disney+. And according to Bob Iger, who isn’t CEO anymore but remains one of the bigwigs at the Mouse House, the straight-to-streaming model is something that could be utilized in the future, depending on how this pandemic shakes out.
“There are some we’ve decided to put on Disney+,” explained Iger (via Barrons). “We already announced one, ‘Artemis Fowl,’ that would have been released in theaters. Others we’ve simply delayed. In some cases we’ve moved things onto Disney+ faster than we would have. ‘Frozen 2’ was one of them, but ‘Onward’ would be the biggest example. It was in theaters when this happened. We moved to a pay-per-view period for a couple of weeks where people could buy it and own it. And then we ended up putting it on Disney+.”
He continued, “In terms of movies going ahead after ‘Artemis,’ there may be a few more that we end up putting directly onto Disney+, but for the most part a lot of the big tentpole Disney films, we’ll simply wait for slots. In some cases we’ve announced new ones already, but later on in the calendar.”
While the former CEO of the Mouse House didn’t name names, he does flat-out confirm that there will likely be more films that skip theaters entirely and make their way to Disney+. Now, before people start feeling like the sky is falling and the death of the theatrical experience is upon us, he does reiterate the the “big tentpole” films will arrive on the big screen. Keep in mind, Disney is a monolith that owns multiple studios. So, realistically, what we could see are some of those Searchlight films or 20th Century Studio films hitting streaming early, perhaps on Hulu.
As for possible Disney+ arrivals, the real question probably comes down to what the studio does with Pixar’s “Soul.” That film still sits on its June 19 release date. As that isn’t likely to happen, we could either see that film hit Disney+, much like Pixar’s “Onward,” or even get delayed into the fall. If the delay is what happens, the natural spot is for the film to take over the November release date of Disney’s animated film, “Raya and the Last Dragon.” And if that’s the case, how about audiences are gifted ‘Raya’ on Disney+ for the holidays? Crazier things have happened.
But it’s fairly safe to say that the future is still unknown, so we’ll just have to keep an eye on the Mouse House to see how it proceeds. Obviously, theater exhibitors are going to be extra keen to find out.