by Beth Keating
News/Analysis
DisneyBizJournal.com
January 5, 2024
When COVID hit, and people hunkered down at home instead of going to their local theaters, Disney pivoted and decided to release several about-to-debut Pixar films on the fledgling Disney+ instead of taking the movies to theaters.
Whether that ended up being the right decision is a debate for numerous pundits, analysts and talking heads, but for now, Disney is turning an eye toward recouping some of those films’ revenues (losses?) by releasing the pictures to the big screen for the first time. Plus, families who haven’t seen the animated features in theaters will get their chance to enjoy the flicks as they were meant to be seen.
Turning Red, Luca, and Soul will arrive in theaters in 2024, one per month, for the first three months of the year. Soul will be released on January 12, 2024; Turning Red on February 9, 2024; and Luca on March 22, 2024.
Many questions loom.
Will the number of families who don’t have Disney+ and still want to see the movies in the theater make enough of a difference to warrant releasing the films to the big screen at this late of a date? Is Disney hoping that an audience that has already streamed and enjoyed the three films will turn out to see them on the big screen? Will either of those cohorts bring in any significant additional revenue? Plus, in an even more quirky twist, Turning Red, Luca, and Soul are all still streaming on Disney+. You could watch it twice in the same day - once in the theater, and once at home!
Families have gotten used to waiting for films to show up on streaming, thus avoiding what can easily approach a hundred-dollar outing for a family of four at the theater. Whether cash-strapped families will spring for theater tickets after they’ve already seen the films remains to be seen.
It’s quite the paradox – Disney released the films to Disney+ the first time around in order to avoid box office losses specific to COVID and simultaneously build their streaming service, but now the company is releasing the films in the theaters to recoup some lost revenue. Only time will tell if this unusual move bolsters Disney’s box office to any significant degree.
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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.
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