Disney announced today that they will be relaunching eight beloved movies in theaters in the coming weeks, as part of their year-long 100th anniversary celebration. Each of the eight movies will have a 2-week re-release window, beginning on July 7 and ending in October. For some of these movies, it will be the first large-scale theatrical re-release. For years, prior to the rise of the home video market, Disney used to consistently rotate their animated classics and some of their other fan-favorites in and out of theaters pretty regularly — and now that they are streaming everything on Disney+, it’s distinctly possible we could see them returning to the “Disney vault” model on some titles to create artificial scarcity.
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Launching on July 7 will be Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. That title will be followed by Toy Story, Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, The Incredibles, Coco, The Lion King and Moana. Since all of the titles were released in the 1990s and beyond, it would not be surprising to find out Disney has plans for more titles starting in October and running through the rest of the year.
Given the anemic box office this year, it’s entirely possible that some of these movies could perform better at the box office than their 2023 competition. It would be kind of wild, for instance, to see The Incredibles or Toy Story opening at #1 or #2 at the box office later this summer.
No word yet on what theaters will be participating in the re-releases. Expect an official announcement about that in the coming weeks.
Recently, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment announced they would debut a new platinum-style series of Disney100 4K UHD steelbooks and Blu-ray slipcovers. The Disney100 editions — available exclusively at Best Buy and Walmart, respectively — highlight some of the most treasured features from each studio’s library, including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Frozen, Encanto, and Pixar’s Toy Story, Coco, and Cars.
The Disney100 Edition 4K steelbooks and Blu-ray slipcovers join the Disney100 Platinum Celebration Collection launched on shopDisney, featuring a platinum version of the iconic Mickey Mouse ear hat, a series of Disney “What If” comic book variant covers from Marvel Comics, and the Disney100 Funko Pop collection, celebrating iconic moments from such films as Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and Fantasia. The year’s celebration officially kicks off with the Disney100 Anniversary Celebration at California’s Disneyland Resort on January 27th.
