More Movies Might Go to Disney+ Following Artemis Fowl

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Bob Iger says more movies might go to Disney+ following Artemis Fowl

Following Disney’s decision to move the official release of Kenneth Branagh’s Artemis Fowl to Disney+, former CEO Bob Iger has confirmed that there are indeed more upcoming movies that might also forgo their theatrical releases and head directly to the streaming service. However, this format will still depend on the world’s current situation in the coming months. As for the House of Mouse’s high-profile films like Black Widow and Mulan, Iger assures fans that these films will definitely still make their debuts in the theaters.

Potential straight-to-Disney+ fare could include their upcoming releases like The New Mutants, Pixar’s Soul, The One and Only Ivan, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and Raya And The Last Dragon.

“There are some we’ve decided to put on Disney+,” Iger said (via Barron’s). “We already announced one, ‘Artemis Fowl,’ that would have been released in theaters. Others we’ve simply delayed. In some cases we’ve moved things onto Disney+ faster than we would have. ‘Frozen 2’ was one of them, but ‘Onward’ would be the biggest example. It was in theaters when this happened. We moved to a pay-per-view period for a couple of weeks where people could buy it and own it. And then we ended up putting it on Disney+.”

He added, “In terms of movies going ahead after Artemis, there may be a few more that we end up putting directly onto Disney+, but for the most part a lot of the big tentpole Disney films, we’ll simply wait for slots. In some cases we’ve announced new ones already, but later on in the calendar.”

Last week, Disney has officially announced the new release dates for their upcoming MCU films and live-action film adaptations with Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and Niki Caro’s Mulan are now scheduled to be released on November 6, 2020 and July 24, 2020, respectively.

As theaters around the world continue to close down due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, major studios have ultimately decided to give early VOD releases to their new films including: Blumhouse’s The Hunt and Invisible Man; Warner Bros.’ Birds of Prey; Sony’s Bloodshot: Lionsgate’s I Still Believe; Universal’s Trolls World Tour; and 20th Century Studios’ Call of the Wild.