{"id":4902,"date":"2020-07-09T18:01:31","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T18:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/blog\/disney-plus-everything-you-need-to-know\/"},"modified":"2020-07-09T18:01:31","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T18:01:31","slug":"disney-plus-everything-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/disney-plus-everything-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Plus: Everything you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

[responsivevoice_button rate=”1\u2033 pitch=”1.2\u2033 volume=”0.8\u2033 voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Story in Audio”]<\/p>\n

Disney Plus: Everything you need to know<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\"hamilton-037-60f3a387.jpg\"<\/span><\/span>
<\/p>\n

Disney released a filmed performance of Hamilton on July 3 on streaming service Disney Plus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span>
\n Disney
\n <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Disney Plus, the entertainment giant’s online hub for streaming almost everything it produces, has been an unrivaled hit among the wave of new services that launched in the last year. Disney Plus<\/span> streams shows and movies from\u00a0Disney\u00a0franchises, including Star Wars<\/span>,\u00a0Marvel<\/span>\u00a0and Pixar, and all the family-friendly movies and animation from Disney itself. It also has new originals and programming it acquired by taking over Fox such as\u00a0The Simpsons.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

On Friday, it began streaming its most anticipated release since the coronavirus pandemic<\/span>: A film version of the award-winning musical Hamilton<\/span>, recorded as a live stage capture of the original Broadway cast<\/span>. Coinciding with the Independence Day holiday weekend in the US, the Hamilton film is coming to stream more than a year earlier than its originally planned theatrical debut. Hamilton was meant to be released in theaters in October next year. Instead, Disney made it available to stream with a $7 monthly subscription last Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
For more like this<\/h5>\n

Subscribe to the Mobile newsletter, receive notifications and see related stories on CNET.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Hamilton gave Disney Plus a clear bump in interest. In the US, Disney Plus mobile-app downloads jumped 72% Friday through Sunday, and mobile app downloads climbed 47% elsewhere in the world. Those stats don’t reflect any app downloads on streaming-TV platforms like Roku, Apple Fire TV, Apple TV or others, which are typically where viewers watch streaming services like Disney Plus most.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A week after Hamilton’s release, Disney Plus is adding a special<\/span> that interviews the cast, creators and a historian about the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s the latest twist to Disney Plus during the\u00a0coronavirus<\/span>\u00a0pandemic. As the coronavirus has shuttered cinemas and forced families to\u00a0entertain themselves almost completely at home<\/span>, Disney has been tweaking\u00a0Disney Plus’ role to bring them a string of surprise streaming releases at home, as its service takes on bigger and earlier involvement in its big-screen films’ releases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At first,\u00a0Disney Plus\u00a0simply started streaming already-released movies months earlier than planned.\u00a0Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker<\/span>\u00a0began streaming\u00a0three months early<\/span>
\n on the May the Fourth fan day for Star Wars. Before that, Disney released animated hit\u00a0Frozen 2\u00a0three months early as well, and Pixar’s\u00a0Onward\u00a0hit Disney Plus just weeks after it premiered in theaters.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Now Disney is ratcheting up the streaming releases of brand new movies too.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Hamilton’s accelerated streaming release follows\u00a0Artemis Fowl<\/span>, a sci-fi fantasy based on a popular series of young-adult books, which began streaming on Disney Plus in the middle of June. It was the first theatrical film that has been reimagined as a streaming exclusive to cope with coronavirus lockdowns. It had been scheduled to hit theaters May 29, but instead the company decided to release it as a Disney Plus original film.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And Disney Plus will soon be the home of\u00a0Beyonce’s next visual album. On Sunday, Disney and Beyonce Knowles-Carter — who played Nala in Disney’s 2019 remake of The Lion King — said her musical film Black Is King would be released exclusively on Disney Plus on July 31. Based on last year’s “soundtrack” album The Gift, it’s a reimagining of the lessons of The Lion King “for today’s young kings and queens in search of their own crowns,” the company said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The visual album “honors the voyages of Black families, throughout time … in a tale about a young king’s transcendent journey through betrayal, love and self-identity. His ancestors help guide him toward his destiny, and with his father’s teachings and guidance from his childhood love, he earns the virtues needed to reclaim his home and throne.”<\/p>\n

Disney Plus is also plugging some of its upcoming movie availability dates on Fridays as “Summer Movie Nights.” That includes previously announced releases, like Hamilton coming this Friday, but it also includes some X-Men films arriving in the weeks and months to come — a benefit of Disney’s takeover of Fox. The streaming service will be getting 2000’s X-Men, which kicked off the franchise, as well as 2013’s The Wolverine, 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past and 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse. (CNET has an article rounding up the major\u00a0Disney Plus TV and film release dates<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

But don’t get your hopes up that new Marvel movies or the live-action Mulan will reach Disney Plus this year. Generally, Disney isn’t risking any of its mega-budget potential blockbusters with a streaming-only release yet. Disney CEO Bob Chapek said the company is evaluating each movie on a case by case basis and may need to modify its plans if theaters remain closed — or if theaters reopen too narrowly for a theatrical release to make enough money.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

However, “we very much believe in the value of the theatrical experience overall to launch blockbuster movies,” he said.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Beyond theatrical releases, the coronavirus has disrupted Disney Plus’ production of new shows and movies as well. With filming shut down<\/span> all over the world, it’ll grow trickier to keep Disney Plus stocked with new things to watch as lockdowns stretch on.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The Mandalorian<\/span>, at least, is still on track. Chapek said in May that the second season of the service’s breakout series would premiere on Disney Plus as planned in October because filming was largely completed before the coronavirus seriously hit the US. <\/p>\n

But the future of other highly anticipated Disney Plus programming remains unclear, such as its Marvel original shows. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier<\/span>\u00a0was supposed to be the first of those to debut in August, but the company hasn’t directly addressed its release plans for any of the series.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Disney Plus series WandaVision was meant to debut on the service in December, but it reportedly needs to complete filming still: Actor Paul Bettany was supposed to appear at a convention in July, but he canceled the appearance because he’s due to resume filming WandaVision in Los Angeles at that time.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the long delays to Marvel’s big-screen feature films complicate matters more. The plots of Marvel films and the new Marvel series are closely knit. So, for example, WandaVision is supposed to come out in December, and that was designed for\u00a0Scarlet Witch<\/span>‘s storyline to flow right into the May 2021 big-screen release of\u00a0Doctor Strange: In The Multiverse of Madness<\/span>. But now, the Doctor Strange sequel has been pushed back nearly a year until March 2022. That raises questions about WandaVision’s timing.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\"star-wars-rise-of-skywalker-ep9-ff-000009\"