Disney+ has amassed 94.9 million subscribers around the world, Disney revealed in its Q4 2020 earnings release.
During its December 10th, 2020 Investor Day presentation, the company had confirmed the streaming service reached 87 million subscribers. Therefore, the service’s total subscriber count has jumped by nearly 10 million in about two months.
Given that Disney+ has seen rapid growth since its November 2019 launch, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney has had to revise its longer-term projected subscriber counts. Now, the company says it expects to hit between 230 and 260 million subscribers by 2024 — a significant jump from the previous 60-90 million target by 2024 it had set back in November.
Growth has no doubt been fuelled over the past two months by Pixar’s critically-acclaimed Soul, which released exclusively on Disney+ on Christmas Day, and WandaVision, Marvel Studios’ first original series for the service that dropped on January 15th.
Disney+ has several other major films and shows coming in 2021, including Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (releasing March 19th), Loki (dropping in May), What If? (mid-2021), Ms. Marvel (late 2021) and Hawkeye (late 2021); Raya and the Last Dragon (releasing on March 5th as a ‘Premier Access’ title like last year’s Mulan); Doogie Howser reboot Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. (TBA 2021); Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. sequel series Monster’s at Work (late 2021) and The Mandalorian spin-off The Book of Boba Fett (December 2021).
However, Disney did not take the opportunity during its latest earnings release to confirm any other movies or shows that are coming to Disney+.
Fans have continued to wonder what new Disney film will skip theatres and head straight to Disney+ like Soul or Raya and the Last Dragon, with many especially calling for Marvel’s twice-delayed Black Widow — currently set for a May 2021 release — to come directly to the service.
That said, The Hollywood Reporter noted last month that sources maintain that Disney will not bring Black Widow to Disney+ and is saving the film for theatres. Additionally, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said in the Q4 2020 earnings call that Black Widow is still intended for release but Disney is “watching very carefully […] to see whether that strategy needs to be revisited.”
Source: Disney
Update 11/02/2021 at 5:17pm ET — Added comment from Disney CEO Bob Chapek regarding Black Widow coming to Disney+.
