'Mulan' will skip theatres and premiere on Disney+

One of Disney’s most eagerly anticipated live-action remakes won’t be hitting theatres after all. After its big screen premiere was delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic (and eventually pulled from the 2020 calendar indefinitely), Mulan is now making its debut on streaming service Disney+. For a price.The service announced that the much-anticipated film will debut on September 4 for the premium purchase price of $29.99. That’s on top of the $8.99/month or $89.99/year subscriber fee to access the online vault, which includes everything from classic Disney animated films and the Star Wars franchise to Pixar and MCU offerings. That’s a hefty fee considering that Hamilton, the last film to forego its original theatrical release to debut on the streaming service instead, was free to subscribers.[video_embed id='1918996']RELATED: The 'Mulan' cast call it an 'honour and privilege' to reimagine the beloved story[/video_embed]According to Variety, the move is to bolster the service’s 60 million global subscribers but to also test the waters and see just how much people are willing to pay to see a movie that was originally supposed to debut exclusively in theatres. And considering the huge losses the company is facing following the forced closure of its amusement parks, cruises and retail stores, it makes sense that Disney is trying to increase its bottom line for the year. Especially since Mulan cost $200 million to produce and more millions to market on a global scale.“We’re looking at Mulan as a one-off as opposed to saying there’s some new business windowing model that we’re looking at,” said Disney’s CEO Bob Chapek on the company’s earnings call on August 4.One-off or not, some people seemed pretty floored that Mulan is now the second most expensive video-on-demand purchase ever following the 2011 offering of Tower Heist for a cool $60 three weeks after its theatrical release. (For more context, Universal made Trolls World Tour available for purchase at $19.99.)

Disney releasing MULAN on their streaming service: pic.twitter.com/D5HGa0U5DZ

— Tom Zohar (@TomZohar) August 5, 2020

I understand @Disney has to make money on #Mulan but $30 extra even with my @disneyplus subscription? Y’all can’t give them full compensation for the amount of streams they get or at least charge us like the movie theaters? Some will pay and then a month or so later it’ll be free

— Lemon? (@cutemaybefunny) August 5, 2020

Welcome to your heavily themed alternative to discussing the price of Mulan. Pretty pictures are so calming, no? pic.twitter.com/mvCqQIspo1

— Eddie Sotto (@boss_angeles) August 5, 2020

Mulan stars Yifei Liu as the legendary title character who disguises herself as a male warrior in order to save her aging father from inscription in the war. It’s based on the 1998 animated film that pulled in more than $300 million US at the box office, and it marks the latest live-action project by Disney following big screen remakes like The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella. This new iteration of Mulan was originally supposed to hit theatres on March 27 following its March 9 red carpet premiere in Los Angeles, but it was postponed several times and eventually pulled from the 2020 calendar as theatres figure out their reopening plans. As Variety pointed out, like Crazy Rich Asians, Mulan is one of the only large-scale releases from a major Hollywood studio to feature an entirely Asian cast.

A message from Mulan Director, Niki Caro. pic.twitter.com/0L3VzAfaeB

— Mulan (@DisneysMulan) March 12, 2020

Mulan isn’t the only anticipated movie of 2020 that has been postponed because of the pandemic. Films like A Quiet Place II, the Peter Rabbit sequel, the new James Bond flick No Time to Die, Black Widow, Wonder Woman 1984, Jordan Peele’s Candyman remake, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights, the new Ghostbusters flick, and Top Gun: Maverick are all among the movies that are now debuting later this year or next after being pushed back following cinema closures across the globe.[video_embed id='1988839']BEFORE YOU GO: Does the 'Hamilton' experience hold up at home?[/video_embed]