Mulan: Disney+ subscribers share frustration at having to pay £19.99 on top of subscription to watch film

Disney+ subscribers will need to pay for Premier Access to watch ‘Mulan’ when released on 4 September

Disney+ subscribers have shared their frustration after the cost of watching Mulan at home was announced.

It was revealed earlier this month that the live action remake of Disney’s 1998 film would be released exclusively on streaming service Disney+ due to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving fans questioning how much the film would cost to watch.

On Tuesday (25 August), Disney announced that in order to watch the film when it is released on Friday 4 September, UK subscribers would need to upgrade their accounts to have Premier Access for a one-off payment of £19.99.

This new feature must be purchased in addition to a regular Disney+ membership, which costs £5.99 per month. Subscribers will then be able to rewatch Mulan for as long as they pay for a regular Disney+ account.

The announcement sparked backlash from subscribers, who accused Disney of introducing a tiered system within the already paid service and speculating that they would be asked to pay again for the release of other new Disney films.

‘Mulan’ will be released exclusively on Disney+ in the UK (Disney/screenshot)

“Nope. Already pay a monthly subscription. How can you have the balls to ask for more on top of that?!” one subscriber wrote.

“And it starts,” another theorised. “How long until there’s 3 tiers? Oh you want access to older stuff? Another £5 a month for you... Marvel? Oh that’s the Marvel plus pack for £6.99 a month.”

However, some viewers reasoned that if you're watching as a group, the £19.99 price tag was still considerably cheaper than watching in cinemas.

“£20 still cheaper than taking a family of 4 to cinema, plus you can rewatch as many times as you want,” one viewer wrote, adding: “It’s a [thumb emoji] up from me.

“If people were going to the cinema they would still be paying £20 ish to watch while having their Disney+ subscription anyways,” another reasoned. ‘Like yh it’s not in a cinema but they need to make profit off it tbh [sic].”

Mulan was originally due to be released in cinemas in March 2020, but was one of the biggest films to be delayed following the global cinema shutdown.