Disney has announced that the remainder of its upcoming film slate for 2021 will have exclusive theatrical releases. This means the films won’t be available on Disney+ with Premier Access like the studio’s previous movies have been this summer. Now, the films will have a 30-day window in theaters before becoming available for at-home streaming.
“Following the tremendous box office success of our summer films which included five of the top eight domestic releases of the year, we are excited to update our theatrical plans for the remainder of 2021,” Kareem Daniel, chairman, Disney media & entertainment distribution said in a news release. Disney has moved on the decision now that the “confidence in moviegoing continues to improve.”
Disney released its latest two movies –Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Free Guy – under a 45-day theater-only release window. Shang-Chi brought in $71.4 million at the box office while Free Guy topped $28.4 million. Neither of those films were available on Premier Access.
The remainder of Disney’s 2021 releases include:
- The Last Duel October 15th
- Ron’s Gone Wrong October 22nd
- Eternals November 5th
- West Side Story December 10th
- The King’s Man December 22nd
This move to theater-only releases has viewers questioning whether the Premier Access feature will just be remembered as a product of the pandemic and not last beyond lockdown, or if Disney+ will invent some new way of utilizing the paid feature in the future.