How to Get Disney+ for $1.99 This Week
The Walt Disney Company turned Friday into Disney+ Day, announcing a long list of movies and television shows coming to the streaming platform in the future. The company is also offering a discount to entice new subscribers for the weekend, offering a one-month subscription for only $1.99. The deal and the flurry of announcements come after Disney shared disappointing subscriber numbers with investors on Wednesday.
The $1.99 deal is available at DisneyPlus.com/welcome/disneyplusday. The offer expires on Friday, Nov. 14 at 11:59 p.m. PST. After one month, the cost goes up to the normal $7.99 a month. The deal is not available if you want to sign up for the Disney Bundle, which also includes ESPN+ and ad-supported Hulu for $13.99 per month. (You can also subscribe to the Disney Bundle with ad-free Hulu for an extra $6 per month.)
Disney+ Day took place just two days after Disney's less-than-stellar fourth-quarter earnings report, which showed that Disney+ subscriber growth is already starting to slow, just two years after the service launched. As of Oct. 2, Disney+ had 118.1 million paid subscribers, up just 2.1 million subscribers over the end of the previous quarter, reports Variety. That number was far short of the 10 million Wall Street forecasters expected. Analysts predicted that the number of Disney+ subscribers would reach 162.2 million by the end of the fourth quarter. That's even after Disney CEO Bob Chapek tried to lower expectations in September when he said the company expected the quarter increase would only be in the "low single-digit millions of subscribers" after the coronavirus pandemic forced delays in the production of anticipated projects.
"We continue to manage our [direct-to-consumer] business for the long-term, and are confident that our high-quality entertainment and expansion into additional markets worldwide will enable us to further grow our streaming platforms globally," Chapek said Wednesday. CFO Christine McCarthy also predicted Disney+ subscriber growth will be "meaningfully higher" in the second half of 2022 compared to the first half. The fourth quarter of 2022 will be the first quarter where Disney will have new shows from all its brands, including Marvel and Star Wars, being released around the same time.
Disney announced dozens of new projects coming to Disney+ in the future from its brands. The new projects include Baymax!, the Enchanted sequel Disenchanted, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Hocus Pocus 2, Will Smith's Welcome to Earth, and Cars on the Road. Marvel Studios got the bulk of the attention, with new projects like X-Men '97, Moon Knight, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and Spider-Man: Freshman Year announced.