Disney Plus customers who shell out $30 for “Mulan” starting Friday, Sept. 4, will get the first look at the live-action remake — but in three months, all subscribers to the streaming service will get access to “Mulan” for no extra charge.
Starting Sept. 4, “Mulan” will be available to Disney Plus subscribers who pay the additional $29.99 early-access fee, on top of the regular $6.99-per-month subscription. “Your access to ‘Mulan’ will continue as long as you are an active Disney Plus subscriber,” the Disney Plus website says.
The “Mulan” Premier Access offer will be available until Nov. 2. Then, as of Dec. 4, 2020, “Mulan” will be available to all Disney Plus subscribers for no additional cost, according to an updated page on the service’s site, as previously spotted by the Verge.
Last month, Disney announced that it would release “Mulan” first as an early-access option on Disney Plus, bypassing theatrical distribution after several delays in its release schedule stemming from the COVID crisis.
For Disney, the unanswered question is how many Disney Plus subscribers will decide to pay $30 for early access to “Mulan” instead of waiting three months — and whether the media conglomerate might have been able to pull in more if it had pushed out the premium VOD window longer.
The movie can be purchased directly from Disney at disneyplus.com, as well as via third-party platforms including Apple, Google and Roku. (Amazon is not currently a distribution partner for “Mulan.”)
Internationally, the early-access pricing for “Mulan” will be slightly lower than in the U.S. In France, however, the film will not be available until Dec. 4 (when it’s unlocked for all Disney Plus customers as part of the base package) because the company’s PVOD plan was opposed by theater owners in that country.
The film, directed by Niki Caro, is a live-action reimagining of Disney’s 1998 animated feature. Like the original, the new “Mulan” follows a young warrior in China who disguises herself as a man to spare her elderly father from having to serve in the military.