Disney's putting Free Guy and Shang-Chi into actual theaters this fall, no Disney Plus or nothin'
Film Features Disney
It’s been a rough year-and-change for the theatrical window, that quasi-mystical arrangement between studios and theaters, designed to keep home video from (hypothetically) totally crushing the going-out-and-watching-movies business. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Disney has tried to walk a middle line on the issue of film releases in a world where there’s nowhere for films to release: Not quite the “delay everything except a handful of VOD releases” approach favored by Universal, but also not the “Fuck it, everything streams for free” approach utilized by Warner Bros. and HBO Max. Instead, Disney has gone the compromise route, dropping films like Soul directly onto its Disney+ service, while keeping bigger releases (Mulan, Raya And The Last Dragon) behind a premium paywall designed to keep some semblance of “the theatrical experience is primary!” propriety in place.
And while the Mouse Place is still holding some of its biggest films—most notably Black Widow, set for July 9, and Cruella, May 28—to this hybrid strategy, it’s also starting to tentatively schedule some actual movies for actual theaters that will not have to share their opening day buzz with Disney+. Specifically, Deadline reports that both Ryan Reynolds’ video game comedy Free Guy and Marvel martial arts flick Shang-Chi will both be getting full theatrical releases, with no Disney+ support. Who’d a thunk?
Admittedly, both films are a little further down the schedule than Cruella, Widow, or July 30's Jungle Cruise: Free Guy, about a video game NPC who starts fighting back against abusive players, is scheduled for August 13, while Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi doesn’t land until September 3. But it’s still the clearest sign of confidence in theaters that the company’s shown yet, ever since the point last year when it gave up on leapfrogging its movies backwards on the schedule every time it became clear (again) that COVID wasn’t going anywhere.
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I was hoping Disney would stick with Premiere Access for all of it’s titles, I live in Ontario Canada and currently there’s no way to see Spiral or Quiet Place 2 as theatres are still closed and they aren’t doing a VOD option (I’m so starved for new content I actually dropped 20 bucks on Chaos Walking which only hit VOD 2 weeks ago in Canada also I was super-curious to finally see it after being shelved for years). at least I can definitely see Black Widow thankfully when it’s on Premiere Access. (Simu Lu and Ryan Reynolds are Canadian and not sure how they’ll be able to promote movies for August and September in their home country if theatres are still closed then)
how’s your vaccine rollout been? i’m in ontario, too, and just got my first dose last week, with a second shot in late august. i was sort of hoping i would be fully immunized by shang-chi’s release, i FEEL like theatres will be open by september.
In BC it’s going okay. I think we’re pretty close to the point where everyone who is willing to get vaxxed has been. The next question will be whether they vax the kids or do the second round for the adults. My concern is even after the two jabs they’ll use the fact some won’t get it as the reason to continue perceptual lockdown and unlayabke deficit spending.
A second shot in late August? What vaccine is that? Any longer than two months between doses, and you’re basically outside of the window for proven effectiveness for both Pfizer and Moderna.
Well, you have to tell the Canadian government that because they’re literally making everyone in Canada wait 4 months in between shots due to shortages and trying to get everyone one shot. It’s almost as if the US took all the vaccine or something.
got my 1st AZ shot 2 weeks ago (although they just paused AZ here but pretty sure I didn’t get a blood clot). Whole rollout I’m not exactly enamored of for promptness or availability (to say nothing of the fact we have to wait 4 months in between shots and might get 2nd shot by mid-August). I signed up first thing online for pharmacies and never heard back after a few days I started cold calling pharmacies and begging for a shot which eventually got me one (the online signup finally notified me about a 3 weeks after singing up that a spot was available when I had already gotten one by calling). I fully support lockdowns, I just hope that by mid July that the Drive-Ins will be open (there’s like literally one 5 minutes from my house) so can see some of these flicks that are opening in the States. Because only WB has been putting movies on VOD (the HBOMAx releases in the US are rentals here) but I get the feeling they’re doing so begrudgingly, Godzilla vs. Kong was only announced as VOD in Canada 6 freakin days beforehand when all the TV ads were still shouting Only in Theatres. the Paramount Plus 45 days later option for Quiet Place 2 looks like crap in Canada, no movies for Paramount Plus Canada, they sell off original shows like the Stand and Star Trek to Amazon and Bell. Literally the only thing you can get on Paramount Plus Canada is as many Blue Bloods back episodes you want. Of course drive-ins present another problem for me personally, my dang keyless remote car shuts off accessory/radio mode automatically after 15 minutes or less to try to save battery. Found that out while watching Tenet, dang radio cut out in the middle of the evil bad guy finale monologue!
As for September for theatres being open, maybe. But the way the rollout in Ontario is frankly garbage I’m not too hopeful. The odd part was last summer theatres were open, but that was when in my hometown it was only 100 active cases and less than 5 new cases a day (got to see New Mutants in theatres). It hasn’t been that for a long while.
The post makes me think that is Ryan Reynolds on the left and it is obviously him when you enlarge it, but from here it looks like Andy Dick.
Free guy looks like stupid fun. Ryan Reynolds is good even in bad movies.
Cinemas re-open in the UK on Monday and I am unreasonably happy. Already booked a ticket to see Godzilla because I wasn’t paying £15 to rent, but with Odeon Limitless I might as well go see some mindless monster action.
I’ve already got four films booked, three with my Cineworld pass and one for my local independent. ‘Unreasonably happy’ is absolutely how I feel, too.
Does the UK not have HBO Max?
Nope, HBO is not a thing here. The HBO Max movies have been tending to go to Sky and/or Prime, so at an additional rental cost – £15-20. I paid for WW84 but otherwise haven’t been particularly bothered. Especially as I have Odeon Limitless so figured I’d wait it out.
Gotcha.That sucks! Especially paying to watch WW84!
YYYYEEEEESSSSSS ODEON LIMITLESS BOIS oh gosh I wish Korea gave a shit about humanity the same way Odeon does. That’s like one of three things I miss about England alongside my pets and Toby’s Carvery.
So Free Guy was delayed forever and now that it’s finally coming out it theatre only which means I still can’t see it unless I want to go sit in a crowded room with a bunch of plague rats? Ugh… Guess I’m just never seeing that damn movie!
I don’t think Disney could release Free Guy on Disney+ right away anyway since it’s technically being released by 20th Century. HBO still has the 20th Century “1st pay window” rights through 2022 and releasing Free Guy on Disney+ before it airs in HBO would violate their contract. It’s the same reason why New Mutants didn’t go straight to Disney+.
They’ll eventually make to Disney+. I can wait til then.
Yep. My reaction was “cool story. Still waiting for streaming.” That’ll likely be my stance for 90%+ of movies from this point forward. The communal movie going experience hasn’t been that great for me outside a few isolated experiences, and that was BEFORE a pandemic.
For all the headlines about the direct to streaming stuff blowing up movies, at least right now, it’s not as lucrative. It seems far more likely that Disney released the movies that it /had/ to release to keep its slate moving and is more than willing to go back to theatrical releases. I don’t think they wanted to release Black Widow on streaming, but they can’t keep pushing out the MCU. The same even goes for Cruella and Pixar movies – If they want to be able to release the ones they’re working on now when they want to release them these have to go first.
Yeah, for all the “death of theaters” talk when Warner Bros announced simultaneous release for all its 2021 movies on HBO Max, it feels like in the past year all the major studios have settled on streaming releases just not being as lucrative as theater releases. Which makes sense, the theatrical window gave them much more opportunity to get people to pay for movies multiple times. Now WB, Disney, and Universal have all announced some form of commitment to a (modified) theatrical window.
The theatrical release also serves as an advertisement for when it eventually streams. There are so many times when something comes to direct to streaming, even something I’m interested in, and I just sort of forget about it. When a movie has been in the theaters for three months or more, and then it starts streaming, it feels like a bigger event.
I’ve said since the trailer dropped that Shang-Chi might be worth going to the theater for and I’m someone that’s always preferred watching movies at home.
How long before China announces that Shang-Chi is banned from release in China?
Free Guy was green lit by Disney? Wild. I will, likely not check this out in theaters. I will eventually check it out on television. What do you think? Hitting Disney Plus in November?
I believe it was greenlit by Fox but they were bought by Disney.
It was greenlit by Fox and already in pre-production when Disney bought Fox out, so all Disney really did not was not pull the plug and waste all the time and money that had already been invested in it.
“Jungle Cruise: Free Guy”? Might wanna give this article another proofread, guys
Jungle Cruise: Free Guy