From CNET: Encanto -- Disney's latest animated musical, a fantasy set in Colombia with music by Lin-Manuel Miranda -- hit Disney Plus after one month exclusively in theaters. Marvel's Eternals spent two months as a theatrical exclusive before it arrived to stream on Disney Plus in mid-January. And even though all of Disney's films since August have premiered in theaters exclusively for some period of time, Pixar's next feature film, Turning Red, will skip theaters to stream exclusively on Disney Plus in March.
What's going on? Just as post-pandemic life has remained frustratingly out of reach, it's hard to get a grip on when and where Disney releases all its movies now.
Disney Plus was up and running only about four months when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. In the nearly two years since, Disney reimagined the service as an outlet to release big new movies while cinemas were shuttered or limping.
And for movies like Encanto, Marvel's Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the time you had to wait before they hit Disney Plus has varied. That return to a theatrical-exclusive strategy helped fuel the box office performance of those movies, but it has crimped options for fans who got used to greater choice in how, where and when they watch new movies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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