Avengers: Endgame Will Launch On Disney+ This Year

Damien McFerran 09/05/2019 – 9:18am

Bringing out the big guns

Disney+ is coming later this year, and promises to shake up the streaming arena dramatically. The service will offer access to Disney’s enviable library of films, TV shows and cartoons, and — given that the House of Mouse now owns Marvel, Star Wars and (more recently) 20th Century Fox — that’s quite a library.

We already know that Disney has big plans for original content — including a Star Wars live-action TV show, reboots and remakes of existing Disney classics — but it could be the company’s cinematic content that really makes the difference.

Speaking in Disney’s recent quarterly earnings report, CEO Bob Iger revealed that Avengers: Endgame — the latest money-spinning Marvel movie — would be coming to Disney+ later this year, shortly after the service launches. While it will most likely be available on Blu-ray and DVD by then, Avengers: Endgame will arrive on Disney+ on December 11th.

Endgame has made more than $1.2 billion during its opening weekend, which comfortably eclipses the $517 million generated by Disney stablemate Star Wars: The Force Awakens in its first weekend. It’s also currently the second-highest grossing film of all time, after Avatar.

Disney had previously allowed Netflix to screen some of its biggest blockbusters, but we imagine that when Disney+ launches the need to share the good stuff will vanish; if that is indeed the case, the Netflix could find itself in a tough position. Disney+ is set to cost $6.99 per month (or $70 for the full year), which undercuts Netflix’s subscription cost in the US.

With one of the biggest films of all time arriving on the service close to launch — and the wealth of other content from Disney’s past (and future) on the table — we’d imagine that Disney+ will be a resounding success. How it will impact Netflix and Amazon — both of which have been massively scaling up their own original content — remains to be seen, but another major player in the streaming arena could be both a blessing and a curse for consumers. While it will encourage all players to raise their game (and perhaps drop their prices), it’s another monthly sub you just can’t risk not having.