With shows like Marvel’s WandaVision, The Mandalorian and movies like Mulan, Soul, Raya and the Last Dragon and more, Disney+ has now over 94.9M subscribers
Image via Disney
Besting Wall Street estimates of 55 million subscribers in five years and achieving its own 4-year goal in just 14 months since its launch in 2018, Disney+ has now reached over 94.9 million subscribers, according to its Q1 2021 earnings report. Other Disney owned streaming properties also increased their subscriber base such as Hulu with over 39.4 million subscribers and ESPN Plus with 12.1 million subscribers. The growth is substantial, considering Disney’s new CEO, Bob Chapek, announced that Disney+ had 87 million subscribers in December 2020 at its investor presentation and in less than two months, the service has catapulted forward even further at 94.9 million subscribers worldwide.
Largely buoyed by the popularity of The Mandalorian’s final episodes in December 2020 and the launch of Pixar’s Soul during the holiday season, Disney+ show strong growth and has led the company to alter its four-year plan to 230-260 million subscribers, according to Variety.
Disney+ Turbo-Charged Streaming Engine
In December during its four-hour investor day, Disney announced a slew of new movies and shows, totaling over 100, for the next few years. This includes 11 films and 11 tv shows from Marvel, including the popular Wandavision streaming tv show that launched January 15th of this year with Elizabeth Olsen (Avengers) as “Scarlet Witch/Wanda” and Paul Bettany (Avengers) as “Vision.”
Additional projects include ten Star Wars spinoffs, of which two are Mandalorian spin-offs that follow the adventures of C-3PO and R2-D2; and a Star Wars new movie “Rogue Squadron,” directed by Patty Jenkins. Patty Jenkins is known for the Wonder Woman franchise and will be the first female director for a primary Star Wars movie in the franchises’s 43-year history.
Disney has 15 Disney movies such as new movies of popular franchises Ice Age, Night at the Museum, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Sister Act and Cheaper by the Dozen. 2007 musical Enchanted returns with a sequel by Amy Adams and Tom Hanks stars in a live-action version of Pinocchio as Geppetto.
Pixar brings its own repertoire with more Cars movies. Marvel has a range of new movies including a “Ms. Marvel” series about an American teenage superhero of Pakistan origin. National Geographic has its own range of shows, including an endurance athlete series with Chris Hemsworth known worldwide as “Thor.” There are also many sport dramas slated as well, including one on Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Milwaukee Bucks basketball star.
Bob Iger, Disney’s longtime CEO and now executive chairman, successfully united many brands under Disney including Marvel, Pixar, National Geographic, 20th Century Studios, ESPN and Hulu. He knew the importance of Disney+ vividly upon his retirement, which he shared in an interview last year in February 2020.
“I want to make sure that our creative pipelines are vibrant. That is very, very important, especially as we roll out Disney+ around the world.”
Even close to the end of the four-hour presentation, Disney did not have enough time to show everything.
The well established company has surprised Wall Street by its adroitness in shifting to changing consumer preferences. With the Covid-19 pandemic, many feared that the company’s beloved parks and entertainment venues would be shuttered for good due to coronavirus restrictions. Disney+ has assuaged all doubts and led to significant excitement about the entertainment veteran.
Disney+ has quickly gained ascendancy in the streaming wars through its low monthly price at $7, although the cost will go up slightly to $8 in March this year; its remarkably popular series The Mandalorian; increased viewership as a result of coronavirus stay home orders and entertainment venue capacity restrictions. Disney sent the popular theatrical release Hamilton to its streaming platform as Covid-19 prevented theaters from running, leading to a surge in demand. As high as 30 million subscribers come from India, where they are also charged a lower monthly subscription fee.
Interestingly, Netflix, the entertainment streaming service that made streaming so popular that it has its own phrase “Netflix and chill,” took 10 years and 2 months to reach 95 million paid subscribers while Disney+ took just 14 months. Netflix currently has 195 million subscribers worldwide. Disney+ expects tor each 230-260 million subscribers in 2025.
Challenges of Running Disney+
Running streaming services are not inexpensive. Disney+ programming costs cost $2 billion in 2020. Disney said its annual content budget will be $8.5 billion by 2024. Building out streaming services costs a great deal. Disney owns four streaming platforms: Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and Star+. Star+ is an international version of Hulu for Latin America that is soon to be launched later this year.
Additional hurdles Disney has faced include losses in its direct to consumer business such as theme parks, reaching $2.8 billion in 2020 and the loss of licensing fees since it has consolidated its vast content library under its own label, Disney+ instead of leasing or selling to other streaming companies.
Another concern lies in the quality and consistency of new content given that content is being distributed at a much faster rate.
“As we increase our output, the emphasis will always be on quality, not volume.”
Finally, Disney+ faces an onslaught of competition from two powerful stalwarts, Netflix and Amazon, that spend billions of dollars on original programming annually as well as new arrivals from entertainment companies with significant content empires such as Warner Media, Viacom CBS, NBC Universal and Discovery. HBOMax is now integrated with AT&T, featuring favorites like Game of Thrones and Friends. Paramount has joined the fray with its own Paramount Plus, building on its self-described “mountain of content,” that is scheduled to launch March 4.
Content on FX, Hulu and Star+
FX, the sci-fi channel, is creating new content based on the popular “Alien” movie franchise and many large projects including “Shogun.”
Hulu has several new shows in development including the new series Nine Perfect Strangers, which is a mystery tale from David E. Kelley and features Regina Hall, Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy.
Star+ contains content from Disney-owned properties such as ABC, FX, Freeform, Searchlight and 20th Century Studios. Disney purchased 20th Century Studios from Rupert Murdoch in 2019. Star+ will appear as a standalone service in Latin America by June of this year and also have ESPN sports coverage through bundle options.
Star+ will also offer mature programming such as Deadpool 2, Family Guy and more for international markets such as Europe, Canada and Australia to reach audiences beyond just families. When the Star channel is added, the cost of Disney+ will go up to about $11/month.
“Our goal is to increasingly put the consumer in charge and let them decide when and how they want to enjoy our one of a kind entertainment offerings.”
Growing Shift from Theater to Direct Streaming Release
The pandemic has forced numerous theaters nationwide to close and accelerated the shift to direct streaming, as well as to push back releases for large films.
Disney has debuted big budget theatrical releases such as “Mulan” on Disney+ with a premium access feature at $30 for lifetime access. “Raya and the Last Dragon” follows this model, arriving in March for a premium fee.
Walt Disney, the founder of Disney, sums it up best.
“If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse.”