The Disney Plus version of the show will include the original Broadway cast.
Joan Marcus
Wildly popular musical Hamilton is coming to Disney Plus on July 3, the company said Tuesday. The movie was previously planned for an October 2021 theatrical release, but Disney opted to bring it straight to the streaming service 15 months sooner, given the coronavirus pandemic.
The musical, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, tells the story of US founding father (and first Treasury Secretary) Alexander Hamilton. The Thomas Kail-directed movie is actually the stage show, shot in 2016 with the original Broadway cast.
On Wednesday, Miranda tweeted about sending his announcement "while actually on TV" for the previous day's Good Morning America interview.
24 hours ago, sent this tweet while actually on TV. ? #Hamilfilm https://t.co/dF6DZDgbmb pic.twitter.com/FbjlrMR02w
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) May 13, 2020
The movie will also be the only way to experience the Broadway show for a while — performances in New York City are suspended until at least Sept. 6.
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Disney's change underscores how disruptive the pandemic has been to Hollywood studios' meticulously planned release cycles. With theaters closed and coronavirus preventive measures keeping people stuck at home, studios have mostly decided to keep pushing back the theatrical release dates for mega-budget pictures. Their tentpole movies in a holding pattern, studios could be setting themselves up to release a glut of movies on top of each other, crimping ticket sales.
Facing the grim reality that the world isn't likely to return to normal anytime soon, studios are starting to send smaller-budget films straight to online sales and rentals.
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Universal, for example, released Trolls World Tour, the sequel to the 2016 animated film, as an online rental the same day it premiered in a small number of cinemas in April. It generated as much money from digital sales in three weeks as the first Trolls film made during a five-month run in theaters.
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Hamilton will be the second Disney movie skipping theaters. Artemis Fowl, a sci-fi fantasy based on young-adult novel series, will go straight to streaming June 12, after it had been planned for theatrical release in May originally.
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But Disney, so far, is holding all its big-budget potential blockbusters for theatrical release. The first up is the live-action remake of Mulan, which is scheduled to hit theaters July 24. Black Widow — the next Marvel Cinematic Universe movie — is still slated for theaters Nov. 6. Disney CEO Bob Chapek said that the company is evaluating each movie on a case-by-case basis and that Disney may need to modify its plans if theaters remain closed — or if theaters reopen too narrowly for a theatrical release to make enough money.
But "we very much believe in the value of the theatrical experience overall to launch blockbuster movies," he said.
It isn't clear if Hamilton will get a theatrical release after this, but it seems unlikely. Disney didn't respond to a request for comment.
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