It would be hard to feign surprise right now since the lock down of so many areas has left a lot of people homebound and not able to go much of anywhere or do anything without getting fined or called out for being one of the worst individuals imaginable. Into this mess comes the streaming networks though, many of who are likely experiencing a surge of business at this moment since when staying home so often people are going to want to be able to watch something. Disney+ is a pretty big draw for those that have kids, and even for those that just happen to like Star Wars, Disney movies, Pixar movies, and of course the MCU. As far as innovation and content go, Brian B. of MovieWeb is pretty accurate in saying that Disney+ is on top of the matter since they do have plenty of original material and they have a very big number of shows that people might be interested that have to do with their various movies and other matters that might be intriguing. To see that they’ve hit the 50 million mark isn’t too surprising and it’s probably a huge relief to those in charge since only a handful of months ago things weren’t looking nearly as promising since people had started canceling their subscriptions right after The Mandalorian season one had concluded. There were definitely a few people thinking that Disney+ wasn’t going to fare so well once the show was over, but the streaming service has held in there and at this point is seeing a big surge in its subscribers.
The streaming wars are anything but over, but at this time Disney+ has definitely come forward as a very big contender even as Netflix and many others are holding steady and doing what they can to deliver original content and movies that people want to see. How much original content remains to be unveiled however is the question since with the studios shut down and no return to work yet in sight it’s hard to say just how long it will be until people have seen the extent of what some services have to offer. Given how much content is there it’s hard to say that with a straight face since unless people are sitting around binge-watching streaming channels, and it happens don’t doubt it, there’s still plenty of stuff that people can do around the house, thereby saving some of the programming to be watched later. And yes, there are still people that don’t watch more than a couple hours of TV in a week at best. In this day and age that’s hard to believe but it’s very true.
Hearing that Disney is doing well on one front isn’t too hard to fathom since the Mouse House has their fingers in a lot of pies so to speak, and likely have contingency plans should something like this pandemic ever happen. It’s easy to think that they didn’t expect their parks to have to close, and it could be that this hit is impacting them in a huge way as they’re reportedly losing millions when it comes to the money that usually rolls in from people crowding into the theme parks and buying merchandise, paying for snacks, and spending money hand over fist wherever they can in the park. Carly Terzigni of The Disney Food Blog has more information on this matter. But again, somehow it does feel as though Disney is doing their best to make sure that they see their way towards the end of the pandemic with plenty still left in the tank. Right now their only essential function is entertainment, and Disney+ and Hulu are taking care of that in a big way. It will be interesting however to see if that’s enough should the pandemic last for a while longer.
Disney+ does have a lot yet to come and hopefully not all of it will be delayed since The Mandalorian season 2 is said to have an October start date while shows such as WandaVision and several others are hopefully bound to show up rather than be delayed. It would be great to see certain Disney movies make their way to streaming if the Mouse House would stop being stubborn and pull the trigger on them, but at this rate it’s likely that we’ll be waiting for a while. Disney might even see more subscribers if they were to release movies such as Black Widow, Mulan, and The New Mutants to streaming, but considering that they want to see what will happen at the box office, which right now only includes drive-in theaters, it’s kind of obvious they want to risk it and hope that things will turn around quickly. Ruchira Dasgupta of News Landed has more on this subject. Worrying about Disney’s future is kind of pointless at this time since they’re bound to have something in place to keep them going, and Disney+ is just part of it.
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