Disney Plus stood out as a breakaway success among a wave of new streaming services, thanks in part to its large library of shows and …
Disney Plus stood out as a breakaway success among a wave of new streaming services, thanks in part to its large library of shows and movies and a widening pipeline of originals and exclusives. Now, the Hollywood giant is back to skipping theaters in favor of Disney Plus again. Turning Red, Pixar’s latest feature, is going to be available only on Disney Plus in March. Disney Plus streamed some big-screen movies the same day they hit theaters for much of the pandemic. But by August, Disney returned to theatrical exclusive, putting movies like Encanto and Marvel’s Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings all in theaters exclusively for as long as 70 days. With Turning Red, Disney is shaking up the new normal of movie releases again. Disney Plus is also a destination for the The Book of Boba Fett, the Star Wars series that’s essentially a spin-off of the service’s biggest original so far, The Mandalorian. Book of Boba Fett is the latest original dropping new episodes now. Here are the important details to know about Disney Plus. Eternals is going to land on Disney Plus early Wednesday morning, available to stream at no added cost for all subscribers starting at midnight PT (3 a.m. ET). Like Shang-Chi, Eternals’ release date on Disney Plus is much later than other 2021 films. The Wednesday streaming release date for Eternals is about 68 days after its wide release in theaters. Pixar’s Turning Red will be available to stream on Disney Plus at no added cost for all subscribers on March 11. In all countries where Disney Plus is operating, Turning Red is essentially skipping theaters. In all countries where Disney Plus hasn’t launched, the company will release the film in cinemas, but it hasn’t announced when yet. Pixar’s last two movies — Soul in late 2020 and Luca in the middle of 2021 — were released this way, too. But Disney hasn’t released a movie straight to Disney Plus since Jungle Cruise in July, and even then, Jungle Cruise was available to stream only by paying an extra $30 fee through its Premier Access model. Yes, Encanto became available to stream on Disney Plus on Dec.24, at no added cost to all subscribers. That was just one month after its theatrical release. That’s a longer wait than for some other Disney movies that were released earlier in the pandemic. Pixar’s Luca, for example, went straight to Disney Plus. But it’s much faster than Disney’s theatrical releases hit the streaming service before the pandemic. Pre-pandemic, it typically took five to eight months for a movie to reach Disney Plus after it hit cinemas. It’s even faster than some other recent Disney movies. Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, for example, was in cinemas for about 70 days before its Disney Plus release. Encanto arrived on Disney Plus after about 30 days. The Book of Boba Fett releases new episodes early Wednesday mornings at midnight PT (3 a.m. ET). The finale will hit on Feb.9, also early that morning. The Book of Boba Fett stars Temeura Morrison as the clone bounty hunter of the title, and features Ming-Na Wen as his partner Fennec Shand. Together, the pair work seize the territories of Jabba the Hutt. After Hawkeye — Disney Plus’ latest live-action Marvel series in the vein of Loki, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision — concluded in December, we don’t know exactly when the next Marvel series like it will arrive in the parade of Marvel shows slated for Disney Plus. Ms. Marvel, which introduces a new character into the MCU, was originally planned to come out this year, but Disney has pushed back Ms. Marvel until, at the earliest, July 2022. In the comic books, the Ms. Marvel character was first incarnated by Carol Danvers, who later took up the identity of Captain Marvel. Then the name was most recently passed on to Kamala Khan, a teen protege of Danvers who was Marvel’s first Muslim character to headline her own comic book and will soon be the center of the Disney Plus series. In mid-November, Marvel also noted that two other series — She-Hulk and Moon Knight — would be released in 2022. Shows that were described as «coming soon» (which really means you’ll probably be waiting awhile for most of these) included Secret Invasion, Echo, Ironheart, Agatha: House of Harkness, Armor Wars, Marvel Zombies, Spider-Man: Freshman Year, X-Men ’97, I Am Groot, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Loki season 2 and Marvel What If season 2. Disney Plus no longer offers a standard free trial. It eliminated its one-week free trial program in June 2020, shortly before the premiere of Hamilton. But other deals may unlock Disney Plus free (or at no added cost). For example, Disney and Verizon have a deal that gives a free year of Disney Plus starting on launch day to all the carrier’s customers with a 4G LTE or 5G unlimited account, as well as new customers of Verizon’s Fios and 5G home internet services. Those who prepurchased a Disney Plus plan such as the now-expired three-year discounted subscription deal can stack their one free year on top of it, according to a Verizon FAQ. Amazon Music Unlimited is also offering a deal for new subscribers to its streaming music service to unlock up to six months of Disney Plus free. In the US, the Disney Plus service costs $8 a month, or $80 a year. The standalone Disney Plus service costs comparable amounts in other countries in their local currencies. Disney Plus’ US price deeply undercuts the $14 monthly fee for Netflix’s most popular plan in the US, which lets you stream to two different devices simultaneously in high definition. But Disney Plus allows all subscribers to stream to four devices and access 4K content at no extra cost — features Netflix charges $18 a month to unlock its premium tier. Way back in 2017, Disney’s then-CEO Bob Iger noted that Disney Plus pricing at launch would reflect the «fact that it will have substantially less volume» than prime competitor Netflix.
