With the Coronavirus outbreak having had major repercussions on the public, people are trying to find new ways to adjust. If you were on, like most of us here at CinemaBlend, that spent a lot of time at movie theaters, that option is basically gone. While theaters haven't entirely closed, there won't be any new movies to see for at least the next month. Luckily, we live in the age of streaming, and Disney made a big move with Disney+ recently by releasing Frozen II on the service months before it was expected to arrive.
Frozen II was only released digitally in mid- February and it just hit physical media a couple of weeks ago. While Disney+ is still fairly new, with the release of films like Toy Story 4 and The Lion King, we've seen that about seven months is the period of time that we should expect to wait between a theatrical release and a movie arriving on Disney+. But instead of waiting until June or July Frozen II is now on Disney+, and people are very happy for the new distraction. The announcement on the Disney Facebook page is filled with happy people like this one.
Thank you Disney + for being a lifeline right now. I’m having to self quarantine because of my compromised immune system, so having Disney + really helps keep me sane.
With the CDC recommending social distancing, a lot of people have taken to their homes to wait out the Coronavirus and hopefully reduce exposure to the point where the virus is no longer an issue. Whether people need to stay home, or are just playing it safe, there's only so long most people can stay home before starting to go slightly stir-crazy, and yeah, it will also help keep mom and dad sane with the kids home.
Bravo to Disney! This will give parents a little break while they’re at home with their kids and schools are closed. As a teacher and a mom, sometimes you do stuff with your kids all day, if you just need a little time to breathe and this will give some parents that time.
And even if you don't have school age kids, younger children can also be entertained with the new addition.
So excited! This was the first movie we took our toddler to in theaters and we recently had to rent it on redbox for her because she asks to watch it daily. She will be so happy to watch her “Elsa movie”!
Whether you were one of the few that missed Frozen II in theaters the first time around, or you just need to see it again, considering how many people have Disney+, and how many might be picking it up to help deal with self-isolation, it was a smart move to drop the most successful animated movie in box office history onto the streaming service, as the good will generated is almost universal.
With Frozen II only having been on Blu-ray for a couple weeks, Disney will likely be able to use this as an interesting test. With all of the studios new films making their way to Disney+, there was always a question of how the streaming service would impact the home video side of the business. To some extent that had to have been built into Disney's financial expectations, but how much will releasing Frozen II on Disney+ early hurt the bottom line of the Blu-ray business? And how much will that matter? Would releasing movies sooner on the platform result in more subscriptions to Disney+?
This situation is certainly a strange one, but it will be interesting to see if we see any changes to the release calendar in the long term because of it.
