Disney CEO Bob Chapek defended the company's decision to release Black Widow this summer in theaters as well as on Disney+ as a Premier Access title, while explaining what factors will determine decisions like this in the future.
Marvel’s Black Widow will be released into theaters on July 9th, but it will also be available for subscribers of Disney+ for an additional $30 fee. Disney did the same approach with Raya and the Last Dragon in March and with Mulan last year.
Chapek discussed the many different areas that have to be factored into decisions like this, noting, “There’s a whole bunch of data points we have to assimilate to make those decisions. The first consideration is, is it a big-tent theatrical franchise? If it is, something like a Marvel movie or a Lucas movie, something that’s going to have legs, plays into a larger mythology.”
However, at the same time, Chapek conceded that the delays on Black Widow (which was scheduled to be released in May 2020 initially) played a role in their decisions, as well, noting “We’ve already delayed Black Widow a couple of times, we didn’t want to delay it again. Yet, at the same time, we always knew there was a risk that exhibition wasn’t going to be fully developed or consumers wouldn’t want to go back and sit in theaters. So, we realized we had to sort of prime the pump and give theatrical exhibition a chance. We couldn’t put all of our eggs in the theatrical exhibition basket because we knew that in the weeks leading up to the decision that the domestic market was not coming back. And it’s still fairly weak. So, we’re very confident that we made the right call there.”
Chapek also fought back against criticism about films debuting solely on Disney+, explaining, that the companies decisions are meant to “ensure all channels have a full complement of offerings to keep everybody happy. But nowhere is that more the case than for Disney+," and he added that the release of Soul on Disney+ was a big boost for the streaming service.
Still, Chapek assured everyone that theatrical releases are still a major part of Disney's plans going forward and that won't change any time soon, even with a pandemic effectively ruining a whole year of theatrical releases (and still having an effect on the market today).
Source: Deadline