During their Investor Day back in December, Disney announced they will be releasing their film “Raya and the Last Dragon” on Disney+ the same day it hits theaters. The film is slated to debut on March 5 and like “Mulan”, will be available on Disney Plus Premier Access for $29.99.
Now, it looks like the company will be following “Mulan’s” release model again as a new report is saying “Raya and the Last Dragon” will be available free for Disney+ subscribers three months after its initial debut..
According to The Streaming Buffer, source code on the service’s site revealed that the movie would be available on the regular tier on June 8th, 2021.
Disney has since removed the date from its source code.
On the Disney+ Help Center it says, “Similar to Mulan, Raya and the Last Dragon will be available to all Disney+ subscribers at a later date for no additional cost.”
The only oddity with the date is that it comes on a Tuesday, instead of the traditional Friday release that Disney+ has used in the past. It’s speculated though that it could be timed with the launch of a new market which generally happens on Tuesdays.
The timing however would be similar to Mulan, which was released on Premier Access on September 4 – and then to all Disney+ subscribers on December 4th.
With movie theaters shuttered across the country, major media companies have been forced to bring some of their films to streaming. “Hamilton,” “Mulan” and “Soul” are among films that were on the Disney theatrical slate that have had to be moved to Disney+. It was also reported that the company is considering premiering “Pinocchio” and “Peter Pan and Wendy” would head to Disney+ instead of movie theaters previously expected.
Since debuting “Mulan” on Premier Access, Disney has remained tight-lipped about how the film performed on the platform. CFO Christine McCarthy has been on the record simply saying “we are very pleased with what we saw over the 4-day weekend,” but haven’t shared any further details.