To think that there was a concern back in December that subscribers were leaving in droves after the finale of The Mandalorian is kind of amusing now since Disney+ is doing just fine with around 30 million subscribers since it launched in November. According to Josh Plainse of Screenrant the streaming service gained around 10 million subscribers in the first day or so of launching, which means those 20+ million subscribers that it’s now able to boast have been coming in readily throughout the last couple of months as the service has been expanding its menu and offering up more in the way of favorite movies and older shows, documentaries, and other features that people are wanting to see. At this point it’s a true contender for Netflix, as their own numbers are in the low 60+ million range at this time, meaning that Disney+ could possibly start catching up in a big way once their signature shows start popping up and the number of new material they offer could be the deciding factor as to whether or not they’ll match or even dethrone Netflix as the king of the streaming networks. It’s ambitious to say the least but it’s still a thought that could possibly happen if things keep looking up for Disney+ and the continual growth that they’re hoping for continues to happen. At some point it could be that Netflix will be overtaken and we’ll be seeing a definite shift in power when it comes to streaming services.
It’s not hard to imagine really since Disney has been a rolling powerhouse for many years now since it started taking over one company after another. The acquisition of Lucasfilm and the advent of the MCU have been two major feathers in the cap of the Mouse House, and Fox, despite being slightly problematic given how many different directions its properties have been seen to go in, is yet another boon for Disney that they can utilize. In a way however it almost sounds as though they might parse out the Fox content and keep a few of the properties from having anything to do with their more family-friendly stories. Imagining how stories such as Deadpool and Aliens might track with Mickey and the rest of the characters is kind of hard to think about, but in all honesty Disney embraced Star Wars, violence and all, though it’s true that Star Wars isn’t prone to the bloodbath and swearing that several of Fox’s movies have experienced over the years. Seeing Deadpool in the MCU would be great, but at this point it doesn’t feel as though Disney will roll the dice and take that chance just yet since they still want the MCU to be family-friendly production that isn’t going to go too savage, but will still ramp up just a little bit since the next phase is already starting to appear as though it might up the ante a bit and create scenarios that are a little more intense than the phases that came before. Emily Todd VanDerWerff of Vox has a few things to say on this subject.
In terms of the streaming service though don’t bother looking for any truly violent or troubling titles since Disney+ is going to keep on with the mild hypocrisy since The Mandalorian has paved the way for shows and movies that are somewhat violent but aren’t the gory and language-addled movies that some of the Mouse House’s properties are currently known as. Disney+ is going to likely remain a very tame service in that it won’t show much more than the intense situations that people have become accustomed to throughout the years, meaning we won’t see anything beyond Tony Stark getting gut-checked by Thanos and Thor beheading the mad titan in Endgame after hacking off his arm. When you say it out loud it makes a person wonder who in the world Disney thinks they’re fooling. The violence that the Fox properties came with is a lot more intense, that’s for certain, but when the term ‘family-friendly’ is used for movies and shows that depict the kind of violence that some people continually rail against, unless DISNEY is stamped on the movie or show, it’s kind of funny really. Jenny Deprado of Prezi might agree with this sentiment. All in all though the violence that is shown in Disney is largely animated and while parents can possibly explain that away it’s definitely on a different level than anything else that Disney owns.
That being said, it’s easy to think that it would take a massive misstep on Disney’s part to see a severe dip in their numbers at this point, so it’s likely that we’ll be seeing them rise even higher as the year progresses. If not, then it’s likely that they took that misstep I just mentioned, or they reached a little too far too quickly and didn’t account for something. It’s going to take a while to see, but so far things are looking up.
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