Fun fact: the “+” in Disney+ stands for “more,” obviously, but also “not available on Netflix, sorry.”
With its plans to launch its own over-the-top video streaming service, Disney’s preparing to change the way it invites people to journey to the Marvel Cinematic Universe from the comfort of their own homes. During yesterday’s earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced (as reported by Deadline) that Captain Marvel would be the first Marvel film exclusively available to watch on Disney+ after its initial release in theaters on March 8.
Decisions like this, Iger insisted, are key to the future of Disney’s growth:
“It’s almost the equivalent of deploying capital to build out our theme parks. This is a bet on the future of this business.”
While the news isn’t quite as surprising as the sudden cancellation of most of Netflix’s MCU shows (we knew Disney would start to consolidate eventually), it does reflect just how serious Disney is about securing a spot within the streaming space that potential customers might take seriously. With a service like Netflix or Hulu, what you’re buying to is a bit of Marvel (and Disney) fare as well as access to huge libraries of content from a significantly larger variety of themes, styles, and genres.
As is the case with Warner Bros.’ DC Universe though, on paper Disney+ is much more limited in terms of the scope of its offerings, but being able to stream truly big Marvel films like Captain Marvel could be exactly the sort of thing that convinces people to sign up for Disney+ when it launches sometime this year.
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