The Mouse House has finally decided to delay the release of their new live-action adaptation of Mulan in China amidst growing concerns about the COVID-19 outbreak.
The novel coronavirus epidemic has affected many businesses around the world and essentially crippled the tourism industry. So, it was only a matter of time before entertainment mediums received a hit as well. In fact, after global concern increased as a result of the virus rapidly spreading through countries like South Korea, Iran and Italy, Disney’s Mulan will now have to look for a more opportune release window in China. Though it would seem the movie will still go through with the previous premiere date in most territories across the world.
As of now, there’ve been roughly 85,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide and health officials estimate that many more may have caught the disease and just not reported it. Several Chinese provinces are currently under lockdown and theaters have closed, causing a huge decline in revenue for the movie industry.
While there’s no telling when things will start to slide back to their normal state in China and other nations around the world, the outbreak will definitely have an impact on Mulan.
Former Disney CEO Bob Iger said the following earlier this month about the possibility of delaying the release date:
“At this point, our parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong are shut down. We don’t know for how long,” Iger said. “Without knowing for how long, it’s difficult to tell…This is something that’s a big concern to us. We have thousands of people that work for us in that area of the world. We have concerns for them, we have concerns for the world and the people of China, of course.”
It’s important to note that Mulan cost a whopping $300 million to make due to the “massive and unprecedented scale” of the sets. In perspective, that’s a big number, especially when you compare it to Avengers: Endgame, which cost just as much.
But will Disney manage to earn those numbers back amid these concerns and their psychological effects on moviegoers? I guess we’ll only have to wait and see.