Disney Plus will raise prices by $1 in the US in March, turning its subscription into an $8 monthly membership, Disney said Thursday as it unleashed a flood of news about its streaming services at a marathon, four-hour event. It laid out plans for as many as 20 Marvel and Star Wars series to come, promised to let animation fans stream Raya and the Last Dragon the same day it hits theaters, and revealed a new bundle that packages Disney Plus, ESPN Plus and ad-free Hulu for $19 a month.
But the company was silent about its plan for streaming Marvel's Black Widow and other Marvel mega-budget movies set to come out next year. The fogginess around Marvel releases means the Disney, which has racked up more epic blockbusters than any other in the past five years, is still uncertain about aggressively bringing its biggest-budget movies to streaming while the pandemic continues to keep film fans out of cinema seats.
Last week, in a move that shocked many and outraged some, AT&T's WarnerMedia said all new movies from its Warner Bros. studio -- including Wonder Woman 1984, Dune and The Matrix 4 -- would be available to stream on its own streaming service HBO Max the same day flicks hit theaters, at no added cost to subscribers.
Thursday's news from Disney -- or, rather, the lack of news about Marvel's streaming release dates -- indicates Disney isn't ready to commit to such a dramatic overhaul of the traditional "windows" for its own movie releases yet.
But the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be alighting on Disney Plus early next year, in a rapid-fire release schedule of three original series all in the first half of next year. The first, WandaVision, will land Jan. 15, as was previously announced. It will be followed quickly by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on March 19. And Loki will drop on Disney Plus in May.
Marvel's Black Widow movie is set to be released in theaters May 7.
Marvel Entertainment; screenshot by Joal Ryan/CNETAmong the new Star Wars projects announced Thursday are two spinoffs from Disney Plus' breakout hit The Mandalorian. One, Ahsoka, will follow the character originated in the animated The Clone Wars series and was portrayed by Rosario Dawson in Mandalorian's second season. It's set within the timeline for The Mandalorian and will debut on Disney Plus around Christmas of 2021. The other Mando spinoff is called Rangers of the New Republic.
And the company delivered some theatrical Star Wars news, saying Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins will direct the new Star Wars: Rogue Squadron movie. Rogue Squadron will be released in theaters Christmas of 2023 and is set to follow pilots across the Star Wars universe.
On Disney Plus itself next year, Disney is switching some of its live-action movies originally intended for the big screen into Disney Plus originals instead, skipping theaters entirely. They include Cruella, which was supposed to hit cinemas in May; Pinocchio, a live-action remake starring Tom Hanks; its Peter Pan reboot; Disenchanted, a sequel to Enchanted that will have Amy Adams reprise her princess role; and Sister Act 3, reviving the comedy franchise about nuns.
Disney Plus has been the breakout hit of the so-called streaming wars, a period over the last year when seemingly everyone, including Disney, Apple, HBO, NBCUniversal and Discovery, rolled out a streaming service to take on the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. But in its first year, Disney Plus has soared to 86.8 million subscribers and outmatched all the rest of the new competitors.
Until the pandemic, Disney had been loyal to the theatrical-release norms that kept movies exclusively in cinemas for 75 days or more, helping Disney rack up more top box-office blockbusters in the last five years than any other studio.
Read more: Star Wars shows, movies we might see at Thursday's preview event
Read more: Every Marvel show and movie we hope to hear about Thursday
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