Is Disney+ a Worthwhile Purchase?
A Disney+ subscription costs 6.99/month or 69.99/year for the average customer.
Many library Disney shows like Hannah Montana and Sweet Life of Zack & Cody will be available in full for streaming. Since Disney acquired 21st Century Fox at the end of 2017, even The Simpsons and box-office hit Avatar are available for our streaming pleasure.
Right now, there are only eight new original series available on Disney+, which is a downer if you are looking for more variety on your streaming plate. While High School Musical: The Musical: The Series sounds like a blast, it is only one of the two scripted series currently available on Disney+ while there are four docuseries and two short series.
If you have enjoyed Disney’s Star Wars trilogy, you might want to subscribe. Disney’s other scripted series, The Mandalorian, is a standalone spin off that takes place five years after the Return of the Jedi according to Kristen Baver, a journalist for the Star Wars website.
However, despite the lack of new scripted series, there will is a plethora of content! Of course all the films from the MCU are available for streaming, but even classics like Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981), X-Men: The Animated Series (1992), and The Incredible Hulk: The Animated Series (1996) are available to stream, according to Buzzfeed. Of course, some of the “lesser-known but still loved” animations like Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors (2018) will be a hit with old and new Marvel enthusiasts alike.
What does the future look like for Disney+?
According to Kelsey Sutton’s, Adweek’s streaming editor, “Disney plans to release more than 30 original series and more than 15 original films and specials on the service in addition to a library to 7,500 television episodes and 500 movie titles” within its first year.
They also project that their subscribers will surpass the amount of Hulu and Netflix combined by millions by 2024. That, my friends, is an insane amount of growth.
I can’t help but admire Disney’s ingenious business model that has been readapted for streaming. It is essentially “the vault” model, but instead of no one having legal access, those who pay the fee have access to the classics as well as new originals that can then be remarketed on the big screen which will in turn drive more subscribers to the streaming platform. The streaming service will also help introduce some of the classic animations to a younger generation which increases the value of content that is already created and lightens the burden to continuously create new content.
As the expectations of Disney is high and the quality of film is spectacular, I am excited to see what Disney can produce as far as original scripted series can go. Will the mass production of series cause a decrease in quality? Will Disney+ become the number one streaming platform? I can’t wait to find out!