Our guide to watching Mulan on Disney+

Exactly how much does the new Mulan movie cost? Can you buy it outside Disney+? If you buy it, do you get to keep it? Learn it all before September 4.

Disney surprised people earlier this month when it announced that its live-action remake of Mulan, a major tentpole movie that was originally going to be released in theaters, would be coming direct to streaming service Disney+…for an extra $29.99. Thanks, coronavirus.

There’s been a lot of confusion over exactly how to watch this movie, and what fees are associated. The Verge has a nice breakdown we’re happy to pass on to you.

So as we already knew, Mulan will cost $29.99 to watch. But to watch it, you already need to paying for a Disney+ subscription, which costs $6.99. So if you don’t already have Disney+, that’s a minimum price of $37.

The next question: if you buy Mulan, do you get to keep it? The answer is yes…so long as you also keep your Disney+ subscription. When you pay the extra $30 for the movie, what you actually get is access to the “Premier Access” part of Disney+. So you pay $7 to get in the door of the club, and another $30 to get into the VIP area, basically.

The jury is out of whether you can still watch Mulan if you pay for it, get rid of Disney+, and then come back later. You’d think that an easy solution to this problem would be for Disney to just make the movie available to download as a standalone purchase outside Disney+, but I don’t know how the Mouse thinks.

The whole thing still feels a little skeevy to me, but there are ways you can make it worth it. If you watch it with friends, for instance, you can probably see the movie for about the same price as you’d pay if you went to the theater. Then again, you’re not supposed to get together with friends right now, for the same reason the movie is getting released this way in the first place.

Mulan comes out on September 4. If it’s a success, expect more moves like this. If not, maybe it’ll just be available to watch on Disney+ for the regular subscription price.

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