It looks like Disney’s live-action Mulan is earning loads of cash – just not in cinemas. In a recent article, Yahoo! Finance mentions a report by the analytics research firm 7Park Data.
According to their numbers, about 29% of U.S. Disney+ users rented Mulan at some point in early September. Now, Disney’s last earnings report claimed the streaming platform surpassed their expectations by amassing over 60 million subscribers worldwide. Assuming that US users represent half of that number, 7Park Data suggests users rented Mulan around 8,7 million times (29 percent of an estimated 30 million users). With $30 per rental that makes for $261 million. And Disney gets all of it since it doesn’t have to split the profit with the distributors.
Mind you, this is the most optimistic estimate. The earnings may be considerably lower. Yet, even so, it looks like Disney’s Mulan gamble might have paid off. For comparison, the movie wasn’t even released in US cinemas – only overseas. Its target audience was in China – the second-largest movie market in the world. However, Mulan faltered in Chinese cinemas due to political controversy, earning about $36,2 million at the time of this writing. Its total worldwide gross currently stands at around $57 million. But if Disney managed to earn loads of money on VOD releases, this would made Mulan a bona fide blockbuster. Additionally, this would hammer another nail in the coffin of the already struggling movie theaters.
