Posted in: Disney, Movies, Pixar | Tagged: disney, movies, onward, pixar

"Onward" is Getting an Early Digital and Streaming Release

Published Fri, 20 Mar 2020 11:45:08 -0500

If there was one bigger movie that was truly impacted by the spread of the coronavirus it would probably be Onward. The Pixar movie garnered pretty decent reviews from critics but within days of its release, it became very apparent that the box office was going to suffer for this one. Onward has only made $103 million worldwide at the time of writing which, for a Pixar movie, is not good at all. That is not even close to enough to make that its considerable budget. There is little doubt that Disney and Pixar struggled with the idea of releasing Onward onto digital and streaming early but now it appears that theater closures are going to go on for a lot longer than anyone would like they don't really have a choice. According to Variety Onward will be released digitally and on Movies Anywhere for $19.99 beginning on Friday at 5 p.m. PT. It hits Disney Plus on April 3 in the U.S.

"While we're looking forward to audiences enjoying our films on the big screen again soon, given the current circumstances, we are pleased to release this fun, adventurous film to digital platforms early for audiences to enjoy from the comfort of their homes," said director Dan Scanlon and producer Kori Rae.

With so many kids stuck at home due to school closures releasing a movie like Onward or Universal making the decision to release Trolls World Tour seems like easy decisions. Parents will need new movies and TV shows to keep their kids occupied and animated movies are the easiest way to do that. That being said we shouldn't expect any other movies from Disney to come to VOD or streaming early. As we have previously said movies like Mulan and Black Widow need the box office to make back their considerable budgets and even delayed they would still do better in a theater than on streaming. Onward was already released so Disney and Pixar didn't really have a choice here if they wanted to make any sort of profit.