Disney had previously announced that Jungle Cruise would be the last movie that would simultaneously be released in theaters and on Disney+ as a Premier Access title (meaning it costs $30 on top of the regular monthly fee). But some speculated that the company would announce more titles would arrive on Premier Access as audiences have been sluggish to return to cineplexes and the COVID-19 delta variant is threatening to shut things down again.
But for the time being, Disney is sticking to its word. A trailer for Eternals aired on Monday night during the Summer Olympics and concluded with the words “Only in Theaters November 5.”
A trailer for Chloé Zhao’s #Eternals aired during The Olympics.
Starring Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Gil Birmingham, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie.pic.twitter.com/pii4HAD3fa
— Marvel Updates (@UpdatesFile) August 2, 2021
It has also been confirmed that 20th Century Studios’ Free Guy would also be released only in theaters. That one isn’t very surprising. Even though Disney owns 20th Century Studios, Free Guy isn’t a Disney branded movie, so it doesn’t really have a place on Disney+ in the first place, and the sister streaming service, Hulu, doesn’t have a Premier Access-like add-on feature.
(Okay, yes I know, Disney+ has some non-Disney content, but I still think it’s doubtful that Free Guy would premiere there.)
Since the start of the pandemic, Disney started releasing some titles directly to Disney+ for free, like Onward and Luca, and some as Premier Access. It was pretty clear that the titles that were given away for free maybe wouldn’t have made that much in theaters. But Premier Access was reserved for would-be blockbusters like Mulan, Raya and the Last Dragon, and Cruella.
But the most high-profile Premier Access title has been the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Black Widow. Even with the dual release, Black Widow had the best cinematic opening since the start of the pandemic– $215M worldwide over its first three days.
But ticket sales plummeted after that. It doesn’t help that thanks to the Disney+ release, pirates had a crystal-clear copy that they could upload for all the internet to view for free. Indeed, Black Widow was the most pirated movie in the world after its release.
But it’s not the waning ticket sales that likely encouraged Disney to keep Eternals and Free Guy in theaters– it’s the lawsuit that Black Widow star and producer Scarlett Johansson has filed against them, due to lost revenue which she would have collected from ticket sales and ticket sales alone. She didn’t get a cut of the Disney+ release.
Disney will probably settle with Johansson out of court, but it likely doesn’t want to face additional lawsuits going forward as these Disney+ releases violate certain contracts and agreements. (Reportedly, Emma Stone and Emily Blunt are considering similar legal action.)
But with the Delta variant spreading, who knows what will happen between now and November 5? (Free Guy opens next week, so nothing is likely to change there.)
