Live-action Mulan will now debut on Disney Plus, but it'll cost a hefty premium

Disney's Mulan
(Image credit: Disney)

After several months of delays due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Disney's historical epic Mulan will now skip its theatrical release entirely and premiere on the Disney Plus streaming service, as revealed by CEO Bob Chapek in the company's latest earnings call.

Unlike other films which have debuted on the service, such as Lady and the Tramp and Artemis Fowl, the Mouse House will be charging a premium of $29.99 (around £ 23 / AU$42) in order to stream the live-action Mulan.

"We’re looking at ‘Mulan’ as a one-off, as opposed to saying there’s some new business windowing model that we’re looking at," said Chapek of the decision. "We find it very interesting to take a premiere offering to consumers at that $29.99 price and learn from it." At present, only US pricing has been confirmed.

Disney's Mulan will reportedly premiere on Disney Plus on September 4, 2020 in every territory in which the service has already launched. Alongside the US, that includes Australia, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

You can order Mulan on Disney Plus here

It will be interesting to see how Disney's Mulan performs at this price point, which is roughly $10 more expensive than Universal’s Trolls World Tour was when it hit on-demand. 

Mulan has a reported budget of $200 million along with additional promotional costs. Thankfully, Disney has amassed a huge number of potential customers on Disney Plus – the earnings call also revealed the streaming service now has 60.5 million subscribers.

[source: Variety]

Stephen Lambrechts
Senior Journalist, Phones and Entertainment

Stephen primarily covers phones and entertainment for TechRadar's Australian team, and has written professionally across the categories of tech, film, television and gaming in both print and online for over a decade. He's obsessed with smartphones, televisions, consoles and gaming PCs, and has a deep-seated desire to consume all forms of media at the highest quality possible. 


He's also likely to talk a person’s ear off at the mere mention of Android, cats, retro sneaker releases, travelling and physical media, such as vinyl and boutique Blu-ray releases. Right now, he's most excited about QD-OLED technology, The Batman and Hellblade 2: Senua's Saga.