This Is Now the Most Important Time in the Film Industry: Wednesdays at 3 AM

Welcome to the Disney+ Adventure Hour, where you’ll never want to leave

(Note: Since this article’s publishing, Disney+ changed their preferred day from Fridays to Wednesdays. The actual substance of this article, I think, remains more relevant than ever.)

It’s 3 AM, do you know where your children are?

Possibly staying up to watch the latest Disney show, if they don’t want spoilers in the morning.

They’ll be doing that for a long time to come.

Disney+ has a habit of adding content Fridays at 3 AM EST/12 AM PST. Movies like Hamilton went on then. So did each episode of The Mandalorian. That’s now the premiere time for each episode of WandaVision, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will take its turn Friday, March 19.

If you watch their shows, sure, that’s helpful to know. You won’t have to look up any schedules now. But there’s a bigger picture to this strategy, too. And with the film industry at a Covid-induced crossroads, the implications extend far beyond when to watch a Marvel show.

Here’s Disney’s New Strategy

The list of upcoming Disney+ shows in the Marvel and Star Wars universes alone is comically large. Over 20 shows in the “next few years.” The time frame’s ambiguity went mostly ignored in the coverage of Disney’s investor conference. But their current scheduling implies a predictable release pattern: One new episode in a flagship franchise a week, every week.

WandaVision’s nine episodes conclude March 5. Falcon starts two weeks later, March 19. Its six episodes presumably end April 23. Loki begins sometime in May. In December comes The Book of Boba Fett, with The Mandalorian’s third season arriving sometime afterwards. Unaccounted for among 2021 releases: The Clone Wars-spinoff The Bad Batch, presumably airing sometime between Loki and Fett.

With Disney+ just getting started, all those new shows should account for that time slot every week of the year. Now, releasing at other times is possible too. Eventually, it’s more inevitable than Thanos. But assume just over 20 shows across a few years, in the 6–9 episodes range… The math’s vague, but 52 episodes a year tracks.

There’s other content going onto the streaming service, too. Everybody should watch the DuckTales reboot. But no one believes me about that, so it’s not an event series that will drive publicity. And a weekly release strategy implies Disney wants attention.

The Rival Branding of Netflix and Disney+

Netflix values the individual experience. Their films and series wash up fully formed on your account, often with little fanfare over their specific release. Any day can be opening day to any particular user. The Top 10 list halfway down your page is one of the few acknowledgements that you’re not their only consumer.

Releasing entire seasons at once lets everyone watch at their own pace, but sacrifices discussions and theories. Nobody’s on the same page until the finale, so viewers have one conversation per series instead of one per episode.

Disney values the collective experience. Disney is family entertainment, theme parks, and blockbusters. They sell “magic:” a joyous, spirited feeling built from making a group of people simultaneously happy.

Kids don’t treasure “the joy in a child’s eyes;” parents do. The kid’s happy, so the parent’s happy, making the kid happier; a feedback loop that grows with every person included within it. Even the films are designed like this: A good blockbuster works in any setting, but the genre’s strengths are built upon a gasping, cheering audience. The company’s “magic” comes from nearby people’s positive emotions.

Disney+ can’t replicate that entirely, but its weekly release schedule keeps the communal focus intact. Releasing episodes at night spreads the spoilers wide, so people learn to watch Baby Yoda quickly. And the weekend gives them a chance to do so. That way, everyone follows along at about the same time.

The Mandalorian’s a straightforward adventure serial. Simple plotting is literally part of the appeal. Yet Season 2 inspired eight weeks of speculation because its weekly release pattern gave audiences a chance to talk. Sticking with a weekly approach makes each episode an event.

HBO’s mastered this form. True Detective and Westworld became phenomena on the backs of fan theories. Game of Thrones was monoculture because we experienced it together — both the highs and lows.

Historically, HBO also didn’t release many show in a year. They’re changing their approach with HBO Max, but that hasn’t paid off yet.

Disney+ plans to be busy, usually within just two fictional universes. Here’s another advantage of a weekly release schedule: It keeps people from being overwhelmed.

If they dropped a trio of Marvel shows right in a row, the commitment might scare casual fans. But once a week is manageable. Nobody’s committing to all of Disney+’s Friday shows, just to one particular series. But once they’ve set aside that hour (and subscribed to the service), it’s easy to move on to the next show too.

There’s another key difference between Netflix and Disney’s brands: Netflix’s content is typically original. Disney’s isn’t. The House of Mouse focuses on crowd-pleasing favorites, extending already-proven blockbusters.

The Next Evolution of Blockbusters

Disney+’s weekly release schedule replicates the premiere date emphasis of those blockbusters. In both cases, that emphasis turns releases into events: watched, covered, discussed. Per the company, they want the shows to be the movies’ equals. They want them to be the next evolution of Disney blockbusters.

That’s a challenge for rival streamers and networks. Entertainment news reporting isn’t endless; if Disney’s releasing blockbuster television every week, that could starve other shows of coverage. Star Wars will get the best critics; other programs won’t get them at all. Right now, television, unlike film, thrives with original concepts. That might stop being the case.

But for the theatrical film industry, this is even more of a wildcard. Disney now dominates blockbuster cinema. This strategy could push consumers further into their ecosystem, as they follow stories across mediums.

Or it might be a mistake.

The Mouse Awakens?

The Mandalorian is substantially better than the sequel trilogy. Disney risks making their theatrical releases redundant. And theatrical releases are more profitable than streaming ones, pandemic economy notwithstanding.

These franchises could also damage their brands. Marvel’s quality control might break down as they grow beyond what Kevin Feige can personally oversee. By the fifth live-action Star Wars show, this might not seem like an event anymore.

Every major Disney brand is involved in Disney+. Failure could have a wide scope.

There would be consequences across cinema. Disney slipping at the box office could help their rivals make a comeback. Or it could be a death knell for movie theaters in a post-Covid world.

Disney’s chosen a time slot. 52 weeks in a year. 52 Disney blockbusters in a year. And when every week’s special, will any of them be?