Miss Jennifer
Member
I hope you're right about it being on Disney Plus in early October. I've planned my movie theme at the library where I work around it for the month of October...I'm going to be doing Disney Halloween movies that have appeal to adults as well as children. Haunted Mansion is going to be the last of them, but I'd scheduled it for 10/23...I can't bump it ahead a week because the meeting rooms where I show movies are going to be taken up with early voting. The other three are movies that are celebrating significant anniversaries this year...Nightmare Before Christmas, Hocus Pocus, and Something Wicked This Way Comes (which, for some God-unknown reason, isn't on Disney Plus so I'll need to get my hands on the DVD).They want to get their return as fast as possible. There’s no major benefit to waiting a year to put it on Disney+ when they could possibly be getting *some* streaming in the meantime. It’ll be just as big next October whether it’s brand new on the platform or not.
Unless it absolutely tanks in theaters and gets immediately sent to Disney+ like Encanto did (Which proved popular with families once it was very easily accessible, but probably won’t be repeated here), they want a healthy window between the film’s release and its arrival online. Opening in July gives them a couple months of buffer before it hits Disney+ at . . . I’d guess the end of September/early October.
They want enough time to try and discourage people from waiting who might otherwise see it in theaters, but also not SO much time that people forget it even existed. Disney+ (among other streamers) think they have a problem with dead media taking up space but getting no viewership. This will probably not be one of those, but waiting a year and letting people forget the thing exists - especially if the box office is soft - wouldn’t help.
They seem to think this is their best shot with Haunted Mansion.
Anyway, no formal reviews yet after the premiere, but early reactions hint that it's good. The worst any of these reactions say is that the plot has a few flaws, but overall it's a fun and even genuinely touching movie with some great Easter eggs.