Mulan (2020) is a live action retelling of the original 1998 Disney animated movie and the original Chinese ballad that it was based off of, directed by Miki Caro with Yifei Liu starring as the title character. The original Mulan film was seen by many to be one of Disney's best animated work, so this film was going to have a tough time to many justifying its existence, especially since previous live action remakes of other original Disney films, such as The Lion King (2019) and Aladdin (2019), met with criticism for sticking too close to the source material or for being dull and lacking the charm that the original films brought to fans years ago. However, the film became plagued with a plethora of different controversies.
Similar to the original movie, Mulan's adventure begins when the empire that controls her family's village starts drafting soldiers from there, which causes Mulan to disguise herself as a male and fight on behalf of her aging father, sparking the adventure that she goes on in the film. Unlike the original, however, many aspects of the film have changed. Mushu, a talking dragon that follows Mulan on her adventure in the original movie, has been removed from the film, and all of the songs that were found in the original were also removed. This has sparked some controversy among fans, as some liked that they were playing into more original ideas, while others thought this would detriment the film and remove what made the original film so special to many. Despite the controversy, the film's live action style allowed for the use of large scale battles and modernized effects, such as Mulan's horse, Black Wind, being a mechanical contraption that computer generated images were placed on to, which looks so realistic compared to actual horses.
Mulan clearly had a target audience and a specific marketing strategy beyond the standard interviews and press tours. First, the rating for this film was PG-13, which was the first of Disney's live action remakes to feature a more mature rating. This shows that Disney was marketing this as a more mature interpretation of the original film. This is also supported by the removal of Mushu, who was a rather comical addition to the original film's cast, and the removal of all of the beloved songs from the original, which some may have seen as too 'child-like.' Another reason for these changes were to make the film more faithful to the original Chinese ballad that the film was based off, which shows how the film was also marketed heavily towards China, since China is very important to Disney's international gross. Not only did Disney release their regular abundance of Chinese New Year themed poster, but the film starred an all Asian cast, not Asian-American, and is one of the largest movies to do so. This naturally stirred up controversy, as many Chinese viewers saw this as a poor attempt that ended feeling 'inauthentic.' The controversy deepens when the Yifei Liu and Donnie Yen, another actor in the film, voiced their support for the police during their retaliation of Hong Kong protesters in 2019, which upset and angered many. Disney also gave a 'special thanks' in the film's credits to the Chinese government of the Xinjiang region, an area that suppresses human rights toward the minority in that region, the Uighur population. This was likely done in an attempt to please the Chinese government by Disney, but it resulted with more people protesting and boycotting the film.
The controversies do not stop there, as The Walt Disney Company's distribution of Mulan also angered many people. The film was originally slated for release in theaters on March 27th, 2020, but the spread of the COVID-19 virus also negatively impacted its release, much like it did to Onward (2020). Disney, adamant that the film get released because of how big of an impact they thought it would have on the world, pushed the movie's release date to sometime in July, which was then subsequently delayed until August, and then it was delayed indefinitely. As the pandemic did not cease, Disney decided to finally bite the bullet and release Mulan through Disney+ on September 4th, 2020. However, there was a catch: because Disney still wanted to make a profit off of this movie, as this movie was granted a $200 million budget on the hope that it was a smash hit, they charged a $30 premier fee, one that will not be lifted until December 4th. Individuals were yet again outraged, as many were not happy that they had to pay $30 to see a movie they were not confident would be good. However, the film did seem to produce some sort of profit in the United States of America, as there was an increase in subscribers by 68% around its release, and the film earned a $35.5 million weekend through the streaming service, though this could have been better when taking into account the budget that the film had.
However, Mulan was released in China, the film's target audience, in some theaters around the same time as its western Disney+ release. However, the film's success did not meet Disney's expectations. It had only earned $23.2 million on its opening weekend debut, which is severely less than other live action films that Disney produced, such as Beauty and the Beast (2017) obtaining $85 million in the same time and place. This is likely due to the concern that people had over the continued threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, thought the myriad of controversies that Chinese citizens had with the movie may also have been an ingredient in its failure.
Overall, while Mulan did make some sort of a profit, it was nothing like what The Walt Disney Company probably desired it to make, considering the large budget and faith that they put into it. It may not have performed terribly in the east, but the the premium fee definitely affected its success. On the other hand, its Chinese performance was extremely poor, which is very detrimental since China was Disney's target audience for Mulan, as that was where they expected to make most of their money back. This is likely due to Disney's attempts at trying to market too heavily to China, as their catering led to many internal and external controversies and boycotts of the film. The COVID-19 pandemic definitely played a factor, but Onward still succeed to some extent through its free, early and efficient Disney+ release, while Mulan underperformed on Disney+ and in Chinese theaters. This may boil down to Disney being too greedy under tough circumstances, as the controversies escalated over time as the movie kept getting pushed back, culminating in its premium release in the west and its underwhelming theater debut in the west. Onward was distributed quickly, while Disney may have waited too long with Mulan, causing the controversies to boil up.