Disney pays $75M for 'Hamilton' global rights, sending film exclusively to Disney+

Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal breaks down the outlook for Disney+ as many remain bullish on the platform, with one analyst estimating that the streamer will surpass 200 million subscribers by 2025.

Video Transcript

- Another stock we're watching today-- Disney shares, up by about 1 and 1/2 percent with an interesting update offered a couple of days ago as the company tries to shift the conversation on that stock away from its struggling park business through the coronavirus shutdown to more of its streaming business. And Disney+ making the announcement that "Hamilton" and the movie around that will be moving up to this summer. For more on that, I want to get to Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal with more on that in this week's "Fame and Fortune." Allie?

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yeah, so "Hamilton" is officially heading to Disney+ exclusively on July 3, just in time for the long holiday weekend. Now Disney paid a pretty penny for the global rights to "Hamilton"-- $75 million to be exact. But hey, this is a very hot ticket on Broadway. People pay hundreds of dollars just to see this.

And even if you wanted to go see it on Broadway right now, you can't because they actually extended that shutdown through Labor Day. I predict that that's going to go much longer. So personally, I think this is a really strong move by Disney+. I think a lot of people will be tuning in, especially a lot of families.

Now it is over a year ahead of its planned theatrical release, but analysts are saying this says less about Disney's overall theatrical strategy and more about Disney+'s need for original content during this time. Keep in mind, Disney+ is still a fairly young platform-- only six months old. And although they're uniquely branded TV shows and movies, along with the hugely successful "The Mandalorian" helped nab those 10 million subscribers on day one, they're still lacking that second wave of original content.

So I think "Hamilton" the movie is going to give it the surge that it needs, and it's coming at a time where people are really bullish on Disney+ and the platform overall. For example, a new note by digital TV research analyst Simon Murray-- he predicts that the platform will have over 200 million subscribers by 2025. That's well above his original estimate of 126 million. And he says this is largely going to be driven by the coronavirus.

Remember, when Disney+ first debuted, Disney was only expecting 60 to 90 million subscribers by 2024, and they well surpassed their expectations at their company's latest earnings report. They said Disney+ has well over 54 million subscribers at this time. So despite all these hurdles, but despite all the challenges that the coronavirus has brought the entertainment industry, this is one platform that just continues to outperform here. And I think "Hamilton" is just going to add to that momentum.

- Yeah, and they've got to keep churning it out. I mean, I've already burned through "The Mandalorian," and there's only so many options on there. As we highlighted last week though-- interesting to see-- "Moana," one of the top-watched-- actually the top-watched thing on Disney+ for the month of April-- so, you know, there's a connection there when you think about "Hamilton" and Lin-Manuel Miranda and when you think about what he's doing on that. So, maybe not surprised to see them pushing ahead with that, moving it up.

But when you look at the other competition out there too-- we've got HBO Max coming down the pike here. So, I mean, not only do you need to worry about putting out content on your platform that's going to connect with your audience, you also have to worry about the competition too.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yeah, HBO Max is now officially less than two weeks from its own launch, and it's really positioning itself to be a strong competitor in this streaming fight. For example, they've already announced a second wave of original content to hit this summer. And that's really going to solidify its continued launch and the success of its launch, especially during this time when production shutdowns remain throughout the country.

AT&T COO and soon-to-be CEO John Stankey talked up the platform during an investor meeting earlier this week. He said he expects customer demand to continue to be high, but didn't know if the pandemic could pose further challenges for the production schedule of HBO Max moving forward, depending on reopening plans. Although he did say the company is exploring all possible options here, and that could possibly include bundling the streamer with other AT&T offerings like wireless and TV packages, which really could change the scope of linear TV as we know it, especially as we see more and more Americans cutting that cord.

But it is going to be interesting to see how they perform when they launch in just a couple of weeks, whether they're going to come out guns hot like Disney+ or perhaps be more muted and quiet like Apple TV+. That remains to be seen, but it's certainly one streamer that we're watching very closely.

- Yeah, for sure. And I mean, on the Disney front, we even talked about ESPN+ and ESPN and then a push there. With "The Last Dance" also a very big, hyped production right now and a big boost for them. But, Alexandra Canal bringing us the latest on the streaming front.