Windows All the Way Down

Disney creates a new window of their own design for Mulan

The latest shoe to drop in the now rapidly-changing theatrical window environment has Disney confirming that not only will their premium video service, Disney+, have a premium layer on top of it, but that premium layer will have a new windowing system too. Per Julia Alexander at The Verge:

For Disney Plus subscribers who don’t want to pay an extra $30 to watch Mulan when it drops on September 4th, the company has announced it will be free to all customers on December 4th.

What’s sort of amazing is that this is actually a far longer window than the one AMC agreed to recently with Universal. That window, of course, is 17 days. This one is 90 days, give or take.

But it’s also perhaps not, exactly. Also per Alexander:

A new description on Mulan’s Disney Plus page notes that it will be available to all subscribers on December 4th, 2020. An FAQ page for Mulan on Disney Plus also states that “Premier Access offer will be available until November 2, 2020,” but it’s unclear exactly what that means for people who want to purchase Mulan between November 2nd and December 4th.

So the premium-on-top-of-premium window may only actually be 50-some days. Then it’s unclear what happens to Mulan in the November 2 to December 4 window. Does it vanish into thin air? Just like Disney used to do with their movies in the VHS days? More likely: it goes to the “regular” premium video services. You know, like iTunes.¹

And presumably on iTunes there will be a short window of a week or two to buy Mulan first, and then to rent it. And there it will likely reside even after it moves back to Disney+, this time on the less premium tier of their premium service. And eventually, one day, it will likely head to cable too for a time, while still living in the above mentioned places as well.

So yeah, it’s windows all the way down.

Now, to be fair to Disney, we’re living in extraordinary times. Perhaps this Mulan situation won’t be indicative of what they’ll do with most or perhaps even any other movies. But it’s also clearly an experiment of sorts, to see what might work in our multi-windowed world.

I’m mostly curious to see how they’re going to message all of this. Because on paper, it sounds confusing as hell.² To watch Mulan on day one, you need to subscribe to Disney+. And then you need to upgrade to a premium access layer. Unless you want to wait until December 4, then just your Disney+ subscription will get you access. But if you want to watch it between November 2 and December 3, you’ll likely have to pay for it on iTunes or one of the similar services. That is, unless it’s playing in theaters by then.

¹ Yes, the place you buy and rent movies on Apple products is still called iTunes. ‘iTunes Movies’, I guess. But still iTunes. Yes, this is crazy in 2020.

² This is a growing problem. And one Hollywood should probably take seriously. I have a rant building on this topic. Hint, it involves Bruno and The Italian Job.