As if you needed any more indicators to signal that Disney is our all-conquering pop culture overlords, and we have no choice but to bow before them, it’s being reported that the Premier Access revenue from the streaming service’s exclusive titles locked behind a $29.99 paywall has generated close to a billion dollars.
Never mind the fact we’re talking about a company that has its fingers in pies ranging from the theme park and cruise line industries to ESPN and ABC via the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars, or even the fact that the platform itself is hoovering up monthly subscription fees from 118 million customers worldwide.
As per FlixPatrol, the myriad of blockbusters that arrived day-and-date on Disney Plus, a list that includes the MCU’s Black Widow, animated smash hit Raya and the Last Dragon, Dwayne Johnson’s Jungle Cruise and Emma Stone’s Cruella, racked up $933 million in sales.
For a comparison of how mind-blowing those figures are, that’s a $550 million increase on the previous fiscal year, proving that Disney has still managed to leverage a pandemic into a moneymaker, even if the overall business was down by billions. The only bad news for the bean counters in the boardroom is that the theatrical industry’s return to prominence could render Premier Access obsolete in no time at all