It might just be there’s a home for the likes of Die Hard and Predator on Disney+ after all, as a new rumour suggests possible changes ahead.
Amongst the many films that Disney now owns, courtesy of its purchase of 20th Century Fox, are Fight Club, all of the Alien films, the four and a bit Die Hard movies and the assorted Predators. All of which are particularly unsuitable for the Disney+ streaming service as it stands at the moment.
It’s pretty well known that Disney+ has a family-friendly ceiling on it, that means films with stronger ratings than PG-13 and 12A aren’t on the service. Instead, in the US, Disney has been selling these movies through the Hulu operation it owns, but outside of the US – where Hulu isn’t available – it puts them through third party on demand services. Which doesn’t really appear to be the Disney preferred way of doing business, particularly now.
A rumour now comes to us from the excellent The Digital Bits that the company is considering a section of the streaming service where non-family-suitable material could live. A section that’d allow it to put the likes of Alien and Die Hard without upsetting its core audience for the service.
It’s still rumour, we should state again, but the idea being mooted would apparently require a pin code to unlock the section, so as to keep young eyes away from films such as Fight Club, There’s Something About Mary and Freddy Got Fingered (well, er, even that’s a Disney film these days). Whether people would go along with a pin code when Netflix may not even need you to click a button to queue up something fruity or violent in the future remains to be seen. Might we just be turning into The Jetsons?
Countering this, it’s worth noting that at the moment, the number of films Disney has on its Disney+ service remains in the hundreds rather than the thousands. Quite how many it’d look to add remains to be seen.
But with the studio for the first time exploring a non-theatrical route for a major blockbuster come the release of Mulan on Disney+ next month (albeit for an extra price), it’s already showing signs of adapting its streaming service to cater for what could politely be called changing times.
When we get any more official word, we’ll let you know. For now, the full report can be found over at The Digital Bits, here.
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