After a movie such as Mulan gets released, usually we’d examine how its box office performance and determine how the Disney remake performed against its massive $200 million production budget. But in an unprecedented move for the studio, Disney decided to bring the action epic straight to homes last weekend. Mulan costs $30 to view, on top of a Disney+ subscription, before it heads to the streaming library later this year. So how’d it do this week?
Since Disney has not revealed specific figures, it’s not an easy task to measure the success of Mulan. The movie is currently at #6 on the streaming service’s “Trending” tab, but there’s a few ways we can gauge the performance of the Disney remake thus far, especially in terms of comparing audience interaction with Mulan to the drop of Hamilton back in July. And it appears to be looking good.
Earlier this week, Mulan was the #1 movie on Disney+’s “Trending” tab and, according to the streaming guide Reelgood (via IndieWire), the movie had a 15% share among all titles streamed, out of the two million users who access VOD platforms through Reelgood. In comparison, Hamilton, during its first weekend, had about a nearly 10% share. Bill & Ted Face The Music has a 5% share.
Theoretically, it's a large sample for the service that could indicate Mulan is a success for the studio. Another piece of data from Sensor Tower tracked the amount of downloads of the Disney+ app the week of Mulan’s release against the week prior. According to TechCrunch, Mulan upped install rates by 68%, and consumer spending within the app grew 193% during the week as well. In other words, Disney+ saw a lot more money roll in during Mulan’s “opening weekend” than usual.
However, per Sensor Tower’s reporting method, Mulan did not quite outpace Hamilton. When the stage musical hit Disney+ on Independence Day weekend, Hamilton’s debut bumped up Disney+ app downloads 79% from the weekend prior. Considering there's about a ten-percent difference, the spike Mulan created would be inherently more prominent either way since new users would be paying $6.99 for a monthly membership and $29.99 to view Mulan.
Disney CFO Christine McCarthy made a brief comment about the performance of Mulan earlier this week, saying the company was “very pleased” with what they saw. But without box office numbers or streaming figures, the true reach of Mulan is tough to measure. The movie is currently hitting theaters in places like China and Russia and Disney+ is available globally.
Based on what we’re seeing, there was legitimate interest in Disney+’s experiment with Mulan. In many regions, theaters are not open or operating at capacity, so perhaps it was an enticing offer to Disney fans – especially those with families. Did you check out Mulan this week and are you interested in the platform continuing to offer “Premier Access?” Vote in our poll below and stay tuned here on CinemaBlend on the latest movies coming to streaming.
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