Why Disney Plus Will Stream 'Turning Red' ASAP
West Side Story -- the Steven Spielberg reimagining of the musical that's nominated for seven Oscars -- hit Disney Plus about three months after it played exclusively in cinemas. Encanto was streaming a month after theaters; for Marvel's Eternals, it took two months. To get more latest news about disney, you can visit shine news official website.
And even though all of Disney's films since August have premiered in theaters exclusively for some period of time, Pixar's next feature film, Turning Red, will skip theaters to stream exclusively on Disney Plus later this month.
What's going on? Just as post-pandemic life has remained frustratingly out of reach, it's hard to get a grip on when and where Disney releases all its movies now.
Disney Plus was up and running only about four months when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. In the nearly two years since, Disney reimagined the service as an outlet to release big new movies while cinemas were shuttered or limping.
But lately, for movies like West Side Story, Encanto, Marvel's Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the time they've spent in theaters exclusively is almost as long as the prepandemic norm. That return to a theatrical-exclusive strategy helped fuel the box office performance of movies like Shang-Chi, but it has crimped options for fans who got used to more choices in how, where and when they watch new movies during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the case of a family film like Encanto, the theatrical exclusive put a damper on its popularity. Once it started streaming, the Encanto soundtrack climbed Billboard's music charts to hit No. 1. Videos of its musical numbers are among the most popular songs on YouTube. We Don't Talk About Bruno, the best-known song from the movie, became a TikTok meme. But none of that happened until Encanto hit Disney Plus.
Here's recap of how Disney has been releasing its movies -- and why it's all over the map. Pixar's Turning Red will be available to stream on Disney Plus for all subscribers on Friday, starting at midnight PT (3 a.m. ET) that morning. Like everything else on Disney Plus right now, it's available to stream at no added cost to your standard subscription. Some people refer to this as the date it will be streaming "free," but everything on Disney Plus requires a paid subscription.
In all countries where Disney Plus is operating, Turning Red is essentially skipping theaters. Pixar's last two movies -- Soul in late 2020 and Luca in the middle of 2021 -- were released this way, too.
But Disney hasn't released a movie straight to Disney Plus since Jungle Cruise in July, and even then, Jungle Cruise was available to stream only by paying an extra $30 fee through the Premier Access model.
In all countries where Disney Plus hasn't launched, the company will release Turning Red in cinemas. (The film will not be released in Russia, however, as Disney has paused all theatrical releases in the country because of the invasion of Ukraine.)Yes, 2021's West Side Story began streaming on both Disney Plus and on HBO Max Wednesday.
The streaming release was more than 80 days after the film was released in theaters exclusively. That's back to the prepandemic norm for theatrical exclusives, which was typically 75 to 90 days. And it's even longer than Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which were in theaters for about 68 and 70 days, respectively. Yes, Encanto became available to stream on Disney Plus on Dec. 24, at no added cost to all subscribers. That was just one month after its theatrical release.
That's a longer wait than for some other Disney animated movies earlier in the pandemic. As mentioned above, Pixar's Soul and Luca, for example, went straight to Disney Plus. Walt Disney Animation Studios' last movie, Raya and the Last Dragon, was available on Disney Plus the same day it hit theaters -- but it required an extra $30 fee to stream for the first few months.