Disney is dishing out the big bucks and rolling out all of their most popular franchises for their Disney+ streaming service, but if you’re thinking a new Star Wars movie will be one of them, think again. While The Mandalorian will bring the galaxy far far away into live-action TV series format for the first time ever, CEO Bob Iger says any new Star Wars features will all debut theatrically.
Here’s what Iger said in an interview with Barrons…
“Almost every movie the studio makes is a $100 million-plus movie, and we’re not looking to make movies at that level for the service. We’re looking to invest significantly in television series on a per-episode business, and we’re looking to make movies that are higher-budget, but nothing like that.”
“We wouldn’t make a Star Wars movie for this platform. When everybody goes out on the weekend and you have a movie that opens up to $200 million, there’s a buzz that creates that enhances value. We like that. And eventually the movies we’re making are going to [end up on] the service.”
Basically, he’s saying he doesn’t want what happens to a lot of Netflix movies, which is they debut then immediately go down the memory hole. Even though Star Wars is having a down moment after the failure of Solo and the polarized reaction to The Last Jedi, it’s good Disney still wants to make their releases a special moviegoing event.
