A strong opening weekend for Black Widow highlighted Disney’s competitiveness

In a rare move, The Walt Disney Company disclosed some details around revenue and profit made from streaming. Per Variety:

Disney and Marvel’s superhero adventure “Black Widow” captured a massive $80 million in its first weekend, crushing the benchmark for the biggest box office debut since the pandemic. The film, starring Scarlett Johansson, is the first from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to open simultaneously in movie theaters and on Disney Plus, where subscribers can rent “Black Widow” for an extra $30. Disney reported that “Black Widow” generated more than $60 million “in Disney Plus Premier Access consumer spend globally,” marking the rare occasion in which a studio disclosed the profits made from streaming.

Directed by Cate Shortland, “Black Widow” collected an additional $78 million from 46 international territories, boosting its global box office haul to an impressive $158 million. Combined with Disney Plus numbers, the final weekend figure sits at $215 million. Curbing overall ticket sales, however, is the fact that “Black Widow” still doesn’t have a release date in China, which is an all-important moviegoing market for the Marvel franchise.

A few things that jumped out to me with this report. First, Disney continues to show the ability to tell appealing stories to a wide audience. Granted, not everybody will enjoy their stories, but the revenue numbers don’t like. They have crushed revenue expectations in the past when the majority of movies that crossed $1 billion in revenue came from the studio and Endgame is still the top two successful movie of all time. Netting $215 million in the first weekend without China when many markets are still dealing with Covid-19, especially the Delta variant, is a great sign in my book.

Second, Disney has a unique ability to be flexible with how they introduce their movies. All the series such as Loki, Wanda Vision or The Falcon & Winter Soldier are exclusive on Disney+ and that makes sense. For the movies, they can reach the audience in different ways. Movies can be exclusive on Disney+ for free to all subscribers or to Premier Access buyers first and to all subscribers after a few weeks. Disney can choose to release movies in theaters first and then on Disney+. Or they can release it in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access; which is exactly what they did with Black Widow. The flexibility allows the company to react to the changing environment caused by Covid. Plus, it’s a great tool to maximize revenue and profit. Movie theaters will bring in nice revenue, but whatever money Disney generates from Premier Access is pure profit.

This unique flexibility is a competitive advantage that none of Disney’s competitors can copy. To convince people to shell out another $30 after already paying a membership, a streamer needs a strong brand and IP. Disney has that. Does Netflix have any movie that could do the same? I don’t think so. Even if a streamer has the necessary IP, does it have all the other ingredients needed t o pull the feat off? Like, if the streamer has a big enough subscriber base to even move the needle? Or does it have the relationship with theaters to negotiate a deal like Disney did? I think other streamers will look at today’s announcement from Disney with interest and try to explore the possibility of copying the model. So I will look forward to see how they can pull it off.

In the last earnings call, Disney reported that they had about 104 million Disney+ subscribers with a third coming from Hotstar in India. Hotstar subscribers pay much less for a Disney+ plan, hence it drags the whole streamer ARPU down. What’s interesting in this case is that Disney+ Premier Access is not available in India. News outlets such as Yahoo reported that the feature was not available in India. My friend from India confirmed it too. Given that Premier Access costs more or less $30 in every available market, $60 million in revenue from the feature means that around 2 million subscribers or around 1-2% of Disney+ subscriber base paid for early access to Black Widow.

Netflix bulls will keep pounding on the big lead that Netflix has over other streamers and, as a result, the cost advantage. That’s true. But what Disney shows is that there is an alternative way to succeed. Disney doesn’t have yet the subscriber base like Netflix has. But it has other unique assets: 1/ A dedicated fanbase to its IPs; 2/ The flexibility to make money from other channels, not just its streaming service; 3/ Its theme park complements nicely its Direct-To-Consumer segment. When you generate more money per movie than your competitors, does it matter whether it comes from your subscribers? That’s not to say Disney can neglect the task of increasing its customer base. It’s important that Disney can catch up to Netflix on this front and please investors in the short term. But it’s even better to introduce Disney+ at a low price in many markets to attract audience while making money from theaters and Premier Access. So far, I haven’t seen another company with this model.

Disclosure: I have a position on Disney and Netflix.