A Tale of Two Movies
Audiences are craving new, immersive films in a sea of online content.
This past weekend saw the long-awaited releases of two of the biggest films of the year: Disney’s Mulan and Warner Bros.’ Tenet. Mulan premiered in international markets including China and Russia a few weeks ago, but stateside, Disney opted for a “premier access” (to the tune of $30) VOD demand release. The film is available on Disney+ and the $30 rental fee applies even to current subscribers. (The movie will be available as part of the Disney+ library in December.) Tenet took a different approach (perhaps at the urging of director Christopher Nolan) and hit select theaters in the U.S. following a surprisingly strong international reception. Neither of these outcomes are what the studios wanted, and each are very different approaches with the same goal: to frame movie-watching as an event.
Unlike, say The Irishman, Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated film released on Netflix last year, both of these movies are visually stunning and rely on a wow-factor that comes from a big-screen experience. In part, for this reason, Warner Bros. and Disney both kept pushing back release dates, hoping for a wide theatrical opening. Instead, over the five-day Labor Day weekend, Tenet opened on just under 3,000 screens in the U.S. and grossed $20.2 million. That’s not a bad number (the $30.5 million record for that weekend is held by the 2007 Halloween remake), but it doesn’t meet the film’s high expectations. It’s unclear exactly what reception for Mulan has been within Disney+, but there was a boost in app downloads over the weekend, and Disney stock saw a bump.
Both of these releases represent compromises. Many of the theaters Tenet is being screened in are operating at partial capacity in order to comply with social distancing mandates. As recently reported in Wired, in a conference call with investors, Disney CEO Bob Chapek called the move to release Mulan via VOD a “one-off.” But given the early numbers and attention, it’s clear that audiences are craving new, immersive films in the sea of online content. The power of blockbuster films comes from their ability to make viewers feel that they’re part of a larger cultural experience, and increasingly, in the digital age, that viewing experience doesn’t necessarily need to be in the same room.
Directors like Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, and even, for a time, Scorsese, have bemoaned the erosion of traditional movie-going. But today, when that isn’t an option for some, the possibility of an alternative kind of collective viewing seems more viable. Mulan and Tenet will likely stay in popular conversation for the next few months because they each invert the big opening weekend model and extend into a season, unrivaled by other big movies (like the latest Bond film) that studios are keeping in the gate.
As movie theaters open across the country in the next few months, Nolan’s film will likely be the first one many people will want to pay to see. And as Mulan rolls out into the Disney + library in December, the streaming platform will likely see another uptick in subscriptions and a renewed interest in the film from those watching for the first time. In a seasonless cultural landscape, movies give people something to look forward to.
