Thread by @gerryconway

I’m going to rant about @DisneyStudios and @disneyplus’s decision to offer #Mulan for viewing at home, as a one-time rental, for $30, at a time when 30 million Americans are out of work, schools are closed, and parents have to keep their kids home for their health. Shame. Shame.

I don’t pretend to understand the “thinking” that went into @disneyplus setting a rental price of $30 for #Mulan, but here’s my guess: $30 is what @DisneyStudios imagines a “typical family of four” would pay for movie theater tickets on discount.

For a company that charges around $400 a day for a family of four to visit their theme park, $30 for a two-hour movie probably seems like a ridiculous bargain, right, @WaltDisneyCo?

The fact that $400 a day is beyond the reach of probably 75%-90% of most Americans doesn’t much matter to @WaltDisneyCo since most visitors to America’s Magic Kingdoms outside California and Florida probably are making a once-in-a-lifetime vacation out of it.

But it kinda matters to the millions of average Americans who work crap jobs for minimum wage or maybe a little more, and who will *never* get to take their kids to a @DisneyParks but who at least sometimes take them to a @DisneyStudios movie, saving up for weeks to do so.

Think I’m exaggerating? Do the math. Imagine you’re a two-income family earning about $85,000 a year (according to the U.S. BLS). After payroll taxes you’re left with about $75,000.

Out of that $75,000 you have to pay for mortgage/rent (typically half your total income if you’re lucky), food for four, utilities, auto, clothes, health insurance (maybe with a subsidy), and other out of pocket expenses.

IF YOU’RE VERY LUCKY, maybe you’ll have enough left over every week to treat your family to a MacDonalds dinner. And maybe maybe maybe a few times a year you or your spouse will be able to take them to a movie matinee. One of you will stay home because you can’t afford both.

Oh, and because it’s not that expensive for value received, and because at least it’s *something* you can do for your kids since you ain’t never gonna afford to take them to Disneyland no matter how much they beg you, you get the $7 a month subscription to @disneyplus.

And now your kids hear that a @DisneyStudios movie they’ve been waiting for for months, #Mulan, is going to be on their favorite streaming channel, @disneyplus!! Joy, joy, they’re so excited, they’ve been going stir crazy, they can’t wait to see it.

Maybe you and your spouse are two of the “lucky” workers who hasn’t lost their job. Maybe one of you has lost your job. Maybe you both have, and you’re barely scraping by on the unemployment insurance that just ran out this week.

WHATEVER your financial condition, as an average working American, you’re terrified of the future right now. You’re tottering on the edge of ruin and you know it.

Your kids’ school probably won’t open and even if it does you don’t know if it’s safe for them to go but if they don’t, how can you or your spouse keep your jobs (if either of you still has a job) if you can’t do something with your kids?

Your life is a nightmare of insecurity. And into that nightmare, @DisneyStudios and @disneyplus toss a $30 time bomb. Your kids will want to see this movie and you won’t want to disappoint them, but $30 on top of the $7 you’re already paying every month? Really?

@DisneyStudios is not doing the average American parent in the middle of a financial crisis and a pandemic any favors by offering #Mulan on @disneyplus for an additional $30. They’re kicking families while they’re down. It’s shameless and evil and wrong.

Sure, money men will make the argument $30 is less than what a movie matinee might cost— but watching a movie at home, as Chris Nolan might tell you, isn’t the same experience as seeing it in a theater. Especially not for a kid. A theater treat is an *event* in a child’s life.

@disneyplus is putting financially strained parents in an impossible position with #Mulan — cynically exploiting (as @Disney always has) the pressure children bring to bear on parents. Usually this cynicism is obnoxious but more or less tolerable. But at a time of crisis?

Shame on you, @disneyplus, @DisneyStudios, @Disney — #shame on you for putting profit over decency. You could have shown corporate compassion and solidarity with America’s struggling families. Instead you chose a money grab.

That’s a real Mickey Mouse move.