Disney has already listed ‘Mulan’ and the information for ‘Premier Access’ on the Disney+ streaming service ahead of it’s September 4th release. If you search ‘Mulan’ the information does come up.

What’s interesting is when you click on the disneyplus.com/mulaninfo link it takes you to information on “Premiere Access.”  It does appear that besides the “you can view it as long as you are a subscriber on Disney+” caveat, you will also need web access to make the $29.99 purchase.

Here’s what it says:

“Starting September 4, with Premier Access, you can watch Mulan before it’s available to all Disney+ subscribers. Disney+ will offer Premier Access to Mulan for $29.99 on disneyplus.com and select platforms. Once you have Premier Access to Mulan, you can watch as many times as you want on any platform where Disney+ is available. Your access to Mulan will continue as long as you are an active Disney+ subscriber.”

Basically you are buying the right to see it early and ahead of other Disney+ subscribers. You will keep your access as long as you are a subscriber.  If you pay your $30 and leave the platform you don’t get to keep the film. So this isn’t like buying the movie as you would on say VUDU. It’s just buying access, but you still have to pay your monthly subscription fee to keep it. At the end of the day it’s still VOD as it has a time limit. Disney hasn’t specified how long it would be until they released the film to everyone on Disney+. One could pay for it and Disney could turn around a month later and just put it up for the regular subscribers. They did this with ‘Onward.’ People paid to go see it and then the theaters shut down and it was on Disney+ a couple of weeks later.

Is this going to be the “new normal?”

We have been wondering if this is going to be their “new upcharge” and if you want to see shows or films sooner you can pay extra to do so. I’m wondering how long until there’s a “Premier Access tier” that allows you to pay a monthly fee to see shows ahead of the release date. Or you can watch an entire ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Marvel’ show, instead of the weekly segments, if you pay the “Premier Access” fee for that title.

When CEO, Bob Chapek, was asked if this was the new business model moving forward he said it wasn’t, and called it a “one-off,” but then he did say that they were going to see how the new option performed. That sounded to me like they were considering using the “Premier Access” moving forward and if not for theatrical releases, then for Disney+ ones.  I have to wonder if they will apply something like this to “The Mandalorian” Season 2?

Either way it’s interesting.

With the Mulan listing they also offer their synopsis of the film:

Premier Access will go live for this film on September 4.

What do you think? Comment and let us know!

Source: Disney+, and my friend Sarah L. (Thanks for letting me know!)