A lot of movies have been hitting streaming services and digital platforms early over the last few months as a way to keep people entertained while stuck at home as well as a way to get movies that might have otherwise missed their chance in front of an audience at all. However, in many cases, those early releases have been limited to the United States. Frozen II dropped on Disney+ in the U.S. back in March, months ahead of its expected debut. While most of the rest of the world has had to wait, their wait will be slightly shorter than expected, as the film is now looking to hit some nations earlier than scheduled.
Frozen II will arrive on Disney+ on July 3 in the U.K and Ireland, which is two weeks ahead of schedule. Seven months has been about what we're used to seeing as the gap between a film's theatrical release and it's arrival on the Disney+ streaming service.
No specific reason for the jump forward was given by Deadline, but it may have something to do with the fact that Into the Unknown: Making Frozen 2, a documentary series about the production of the film, is set to drop at the tail end of June. It will arrive in both the U.S. and Europe on the same day, Friday, June 26. Unlike most Disney+ series, Into the Unknown will see all six of its episodes drop at once, and so it may have been decided that if people were going to be given a look behind-the-scenes of a movie, they should also be given the final product in short order as well.
This makes July 3 a big day for Disney+ around the world. In addition to Frozen II arriving in some territories, all territories currently getting Disney+ will also begin streaming the filmed production of Hamilton, which was originally slated to be a theatrical release next year.
Disney+ was always designed to be a key component of the company's future, but with streaming services becoming even more important than expected in recent months, keeping people engaged with the service is key. This means a regular drip of quality exclusive content, whether that's in the form of blockbuster theatrical movies, or original content released first on Disney+. With the lack of theatrical releases on the horizon, that other new content has a lot of heavy lifting to do.
Of course, with production delays on a lot of that original content for the same reason that those theatrical releases didn't happen, even streaming services are going to eventually run into problems with content if things keep going as they are. But for the time being some great stuff is still planned on Disney+ no matter where you live.
