Disney has pulled their live-action adaptation of Mulan from their release schedule. This is the fourth time that the highly anticipated movie has been delayed this year. Movie theaters have been closed since the beginning of March and they show no signs of opening up any time soon. AMC announced earlier this morning that they plan on opening in mid to late August, but there are no guarantees, especially now that Mulan has vacated its mid-August release date. Disney had this to say in a statement.
“Over the last few months, it’s become clear that nothing can be set in stone when it comes to how we release films during this global health crisis, and today that means pausing our release plans for Mulan as we assess how we can most effectively bring this film to audiences around the world.”
For now, Mulan does not have a new release date. The live-action adaptation was originally going to open on March 27th, which was later moved to July 24th, due to current events. From there, Disney made the decision to follow Tenet and aim for an August release date. Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. completely pulled Tenet earlier this week and they are reassessing its global launch.
Tenet may very well open up internationally before coming to North America. It’s unclear if Disney will take this same approach with Mulan since everything is up in the air. Public health concerns have kept movie theaters shut down and it looks like they could remain closed for the rest of the year with the way cases keep surging all over the country. It’s far too early to tell what even September will look like.
Mulan reportedly cost over $200 million, so it’s important for Disney to get the movie out into theaters and as many eyes as possible to try and make some of that money back. As for a streaming route, that has not been publicly discussed, though it is a possibility as studios try and navigate their new normal. Orion Pictures made the decision to take the highly anticipated Bill & Ted Face the Music and move it to a September release in theaters, with a simultaneous launch on VOD.
Bill & Ted Face the Music will make some kind of money upon its release, which is better than nothing when all is said and done. It could prove to be a profitable way of doing things, which may find other studios following suit since 2020 seems to be a wash. Whatever the case may be, Mulan is high on Disney’s priorities, along with Black Widow, which was supposed to open in theaters back in May. It is now scheduled to open in November, though it remains unclear if it will be able to do so. Variety was the first to reveal that Mulan has been pulled from Disney’s release schedule.
