Disney Won’t Debut New ‘Star Wars’ Movies Through Their Streaming Service First
Even though Disney is planning a lot of original content for debut on their forthcomingDisney+subscription streaming service launching late in 2019, one of their biggest franchises won’t be debuting any new movies there.
In a recent interview, Disney CEOBob Igersaid that even though they’re spending big bucks on new projects likeThe Mandalorian, the first live-actionStar Warsseries ever, the feature-length adventures from a galaxy far, far away are simply too big to premiere only in their streaming library.
Speaking withBarrons(viaSyFy Wire), Bob Iger broke down the business of takingStar Warsmovies to theaters first:
“Almost every movie the studio makes is a $100 million-plus movie, and we’re not looking to make movies at that level for the service. We’re looking to invest significantly in television series on a per-episode business, and we’re looking to make movies that are higher-budget, but nothing like that.”
When Iger mentions “movies that are higher budget,” he’s talking about projects like theirlive-action remake ofLady and the Trampwith Tessa Thompson and Justin Theroux providing their voices as the titular dogs who fall in love. That’s probably about as big as Disney will be willing to go with their feature-length projects heading straight to Disney+. AndStar Warswon’t be one of those kind of movies. Iger continued:
“We wouldn’t make aStar Warsmovie for this platform. When everybody goes out on the weekend and you have a movie that opens up to $200 million, there’s a buzz that creates that enhances value. We like that. And eventually the movies we’re making are going to [end up on] the service.”
As it stands, Disney+ will be launching late in 2019, and it will apparently be coming with five or six new movies mean to debut on the streaming service. We rounded up some of the projectsin the works as of February of 2018, so surely some of those will arrive when the service launches. And since them, someMarvel Studios shows have been announced too. But as for when they’ll actually hit the streaming library, we’ll have to wait and see.
