Disney Threw in Towel, COVID Won, ‘Black Widow’ Will Debut on Disney+

Disney, and especially Marvel, have been going on about how committed they are to the “theatrical experience” and how they needed to be experienced on the big screen as we watch the movie theater industry die in flames around us thanks to the COVID pandemic showing us how much the theatrical experience sucks if you really think about it.

I think that we all knew that what they meant was “these movies make a billion dollars and we think they’ll make less than that if we sell them on Disney+ instead.

But it’s been a year and a half since there have been a Marvel movie and movie theaters aren’t really any closer to opening so Disney is doing what I predicted they’d do and they’re trying to get as much money as they can in whatever way they can.

That means Black Widow is coming to Disney+ for $30, just like Mulan, only with a movie people actually want to see.

Their statement to Variety on the matter could not have been more full of corporate-speak and buzzwords.

Kareem Daniel, the chairman of Disney Media and Entertainment distribution, says the announcement “reflects our focus on providing consumer choice and serving the evolving preferences of audiences.”

“By leveraging a flexible distribution strategy in a dynamic marketplace that is beginning to recover from the global pandemic, we will continue to employ the best options to deliver The Walt Disney Company’s unparalleled storytelling to fans and families around the world,” he said.

Yeah, they’re really synergizing their visibility to impact their core competency there.

Black Widow is also being pushed back to July and Shang-Chi is moving to September, where it will supposedly have a traditional theatrical release but I wouldn’t bet on it if people are still claiming vaccines are a communist plot to inject people with pedophile DNA or whatever. It probably depends a lot more on how many people pay for Black Widow.