Disney's live-action "Mulan"

[jmc]

Well, they get no sympathy as far as I'm concerned. Pandering to China was only ever going to lead to the company being forced to answer questions it would rather not be asked. Especially when the company tries its hardest to be a supporter of social issues.

 

[Marvolo]

This stat is kind of meaningless.

Premium subscription services tend to guage success by new subscription numbers when they premiere something. HBO and premium cable networks have done that for years. If there was a 68% spike in app downloads the weekend mulan premiered you can believe Disney doesn't consider it a meaningless stat.

Here is another stat:

Consumer spending in the app also spiked 193%

 

[Holy Slapper]

I’m willing to consider that she didn’t have a choice to even stay silent.

But the choice by Disney to film in Xinjiang and thank the local authorities committing genocide is terrible.

Again, that hasn't been mentioned in the media over here until mostly early this year. Getting anything reliable information from China that isn't government filtered is difficult and I have doubts movie studios are privy to such information.

I can imagine in a couple years, there's going to be some wild stories re: all the dealing with the Chinese government about the making of this movie by the people involved in it.

 

[Prison Mike]

That 68% number isn’t even counting downloads from roku and amazon fire

 

[Holy Slapper]

Prominant youtube channels are now picking up this story with China. A big channel just dropped a sory 30 mins ago. Not going to go away easily. They dug a hole forthemselves and deserve to fall in. Terrible business practices

Let me guess, Geeks + Gamers?

 

[Lenny Jako]

It's not a channel on fandom but usually covers political views and stories. That's why I say it's now political and outside of entertainment. This is human values story, not I hate Star Wars pov, which I dont care either way.

 

[CaptainWagner]

I’m willing to consider that she didn’t have a choice to even stay silent.

But the choice by Disney to film in Xinjiang and thank the local authorities committing genocide is terrible.

I definitely get that any Chinese celebrity is facing a potential life or death choice, so that's not as huge a problem. But filming in Xinjiang is a whole different issue. It's the modern equivalent of filming next to Auschwitz and then thanking the local Nazi government.

It is what it is, and there's not really any point carrying on about it.

Why not apply this to anything. Every atrocity worldwide is ultimately not going to be touched by individual complaints. But are we just supposed to bury our heads and ignore evil in the world? If enough people care to make Disney look bad on an international field, there could be change. If enough pressure is put on politicians, there could be change. But there will never be any change if nobody "carries on about it."

By free, you mean available to Disney+ subscribers in December? I mean you’re still paying $6.99 a month for the service which goes straight into Disney’s pockets. If you’re that outraged over it, shouldn’t you refuse to watch anything from Disney? Why would you want to support a company that made a film “with support from the people who thrive on the backbone in other people’s suffering”?

This is basically the "I see you, too, live in a society" argument

 

[jmc]

Premium subscription services tend to guage success by new subscription numbers when they premiere something. HBO and premium cable networks have done that for years. If there was a 68% spike in app downloads the weekend mulan premiered you can believe Disney doesn't consider it a meaningless stat.

Here is another stat:

Consumer spending in the app also spiked 193%

There's nothing else to spend on in the app, so that number is just as useless. Without knowing how many people downloaded the app the week before then these are pointless figures.

 

[Holy Slapper]

Based on one torrent site, it's been very popular with just one 1080p version having over 10K seeders and leechers right now.

 

[Schlosser85]

Based on one torrent site, it's been very popular with just one 1080p version having over 10K seeders and leechers right now.

I miss The Pirate Bay.

 

[jmc]

Let's do some rough maths. Mulan was around $200m to make, they spent probably $100m on advertising pre-covid, maybe $150m, so lets say $350m total for argument sake. They're not splitting the revenue, so at a minimum they need about 12 million people paying $30 to roughly breakeven. If they have 60 million subscribers they need roughly one-fifth of those subscribers to make their money back on the film. It's not impossible, but I'm also not convinced it's likely, especially when they already announced when it's coming free to the service.

 

[Holy Slapper]

I miss The Pirate Bay.

And I wasn't even talking about that. But since you brought it up, almost 25K seeders and leechers for the 1080p version with the highest traffic.

 

[jmc]

Pirate Bay's still around isn't it?

 

[Holy Slapper]

Let's do some rough maths. Mulan was around $200m to make, they spent probably $100m on advertising pre-covid, maybe $150m, so lets say $350m total for argument sake. They're not splitting the revenue, so at a minimum they need about 12 million people paying $30 to roughly breakeven. If they have 60 million subscribers they need roughly one-fifth of those subscribers to make their money back on the film. It's not impossible, but I'm also not convinced it's likely, especially when they already announced when it's coming free to the service.

You're forgetting that it's getting released in theaters in China.

 

[Marvolo]

Pirate Bay's still around isn't it?

Yeah last I checked. Its too well archived and too slippery to permanently shut down.

 

[jmc]

You're forgetting that it's getting released in theaters in China.

True, but the figures for VOD still need to be a substantial proportion of their user base.

 

[Holy Slapper]

Pirate Bay's still around isn't it?

Yes. It never went away. It's a bit crappier these days in functionality than what it used to be like.

 

[terry78]

"Boycott Mulan" trends on Twitter after credits reveal region of China where movie was filmed - CBS News

 

[jmc]

More figures rolling in:


Looking on par with Tenet.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Tenet had to work from being an original property not aimed at Chinese audiences.

The fact that Disney worked so hard to appeal in China, this must be a major blow.

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[:eek:]

Mulan: Chinese Government Orders Media Not to Cover the Disney Film

 

[terry78]

We all knew this was coming.

 

[Evil Twin]

Premium subscription services tend to guage success by new subscription numbers when they premiere something. HBO and premium cable networks have done that for years. If there was a 68% spike in app downloads the weekend mulan premiered you can believe Disney doesn't consider it a meaningless stat.

Here is another stat:

Consumer spending in the app also spiked 193%

I think the main question is, what's the normal spike for first week of the month? Presumably, for billing convenience, that's when people are likeliest to sign up, along with new content becoming available.

1.12 million seems to be the only hard number, albeit only Disney knows the accuracy. Let's say it's in the ballpark, Disney has a long way to go to break even. And who knows what legs VOD has?

 

[Gee]

Tenet had to work from being an original property not aimed at Chinese audiences.

The fact that Disney worked so hard to appeal in China, this must be a major blow.

And the Chinese audience doesn't even like it.