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Disney has committed to the details of its release of Mulan. The live-action version of the 1998 animated film will be available to buy on September 4. More expensive than other straight-to-digital releases, you’ll also need to maintain a Disney Plus subscription to continue to watch it.

Disney had hoped to open in theaters but had to reschedule its initial March 27 opening date. Theaters remained closed, and the release was pushed back to July 24 and August 21 as the company worked out how it wanted to make this big, much-anticipated production available.

Mulan will be the first of what Disney is calling “Premier Access” on the Disney+ streaming service. Disney+ subscribers will be able to purchase the movie for $30 on disneyplus.com as well as on Apple, Google, and Roku.

The $30 price tag is a jump from the typical $20 purchase price of other studios’ first-run digital download premiers. Nonetheless, the price is less than it would cost to take a family of four to a movie theater. It may be worth it for those who don’t want to wait for the 60 to 90 days until it’s offered as part of the Disney+ library.

And yes, it will become available as part of Disney+. On the Disney earnings report call, Disney CEO Bob Chapek stated, “you can watch Mulan before it’s available to all Disney+ subscribers.”

Unlike other movies that you own, you can only watch Mulan if you continue to subscribe to Disney+ at $7 per month. It would be much more desirable if the price meant we owned the movie and could watch it with our other Movies Anywhere titles.

But Disney’s streaming subscriber base has skyrocketed since the pandemic shutdown with over 100 million users. That total includes 8.5 million ESPN users, 35.5 million Hulu subscribers, and 57.5 from Disney+. The company wants to find ways to keep those new subscribers and reduce user churn (where users abandon their subscription after watching a highly desired title like Hamilton).

Analytics firm, Antenna reported there was a 641% increase of signups prior to the release of Hamilton. These new subscribers were one-and-a-half times more likely to cancel their Disney+ subscription after the first month. The threat of losing a purchased title is one way to keep subscribers. The other way is to continue to offer desirable content.

The second season of The Mandalorian should be coming out in October. Then, if the Mulan Premier Access is a success, it’s likely that Marvel’s Black Widow starring Scarlett Johansson might be released on November 6. Marvel’s WandaVision is tentatively scheduled for December.

Details and Buying Mulan

The original animated Mulan feature was released in 1998. The film became a Disney classic, and a sequel, Mulan II, was released in 2005. This live adaptation follows the original storyline based on the Chinese folklore, “The Ballad of Mulan.” Mulan is a young girl who masquerades as a man to take her sick father’s place in the Imperial Army. It’s a story of a young woman who must test her inner fortitude to rise to the challenges of a warrior.

Mulan will be available in high quality streaming 4K DolbyVision or HDR10 with Dolby Atmos audio. It’s also available in high definition with 5.1 sound.

Buy Mulan on the Disney+Mulan page .