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Disney+ Will Release New Marvel Content Every Week, Whether You Like It or Not
Here’s why the new model will make superhero franchises impossible to ignore
Last week, Disney took advantage of an investor’s webcast — what should be a boring event — to announce a slate of new Marvel, Star Wars, and animated shows and movies. By this point, Disney preemptively claiming cultural dominance over the coming years is nothing new, but this time the company also laid bare a plan that has largely flown under the radar.
Starting in 2021, Disney will start scheduling its biggest brands the way Marvel has sold its comic books for decades. And that model will provide its biggest franchises with fresh content on a near-weekly basis, ensuring fans never have to (or get to) take a break from Disney’s most profitable universes.
Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, individual entries in a cinematic superhero series were relatively rare. Christopher Nolan, for example, made three Batman movies and it took seven years between the release of the first and the last. However, it wasn’t Warner Bros.’ only big-budget franchise. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or The Matrix films can also generate revenue, so no one franchise has to carry the bottom line.
