by Following a disappointing release update, Ant-Man 3 and The Wasp: Quantumania may not be arriving on Disney+ as soon as anticipated.
With the arrival of the newest superhero movies on the streamer, Disney+ made MCU material more available at home than ever before. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever set a disappointing record on that front, though.
The MCU threequel Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, whose box office performance fell short of expectations, has announced when it will be available for digital and physical purchase. A Disney+ release is not in the works.
Due to its Loki Season 2–related post-credits scene promising a new Variant of Jonathan Majors’ Kang, Ant-Man 3 has already made MCU Disney+ history.
Disney+ may delay the release of Ant-Man 3 for a while.
Recently, it was announced by Marvel Studios and Disney that Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania will be available digitally on April 18 and on Blu-ray and 4K media on May 16.
Though Ant-Man 3 was officially advertised in a tweet from Marvel Studios as “ONLY on digital” on April 18, the home release marketing neglected to specify when it will be available on Disney+.
This is the first Marvel Studios film to be advertised with language like “ONLY on digital” without mentioning the streaming service since Disney+ debuted in 2019.
Fans have become accustomed to Marvel Studios advertising its digital and streaming releases side by side and having both come out on the same day over the past year.
As Avatar: The Way of Water recently used a similar approach in delaying the Disney+ marketing and release until after the digital and Blu-ray drops, Disney appears to be considering a modification to its existing streaming release strategy.
Avatar 2 eventually entered the digital marketplace on March 28—eleven days ago as of this writing—but has failed to reveal its Blu-ray or Disney+ release dates, even though the service was just updated with its technical specifications.
Is Disney changing its plan for Ant-Man 3’s home release?
Avatar 2 and Ant-Man 3 are the latest two significant Disney films to remove a streaming date from the promotion for their initial home release. This comes after Disney+ has been prominently included in practically every Disney film’s home distribution announcements and marketing since the service’s inception.
While films like Avatar 2 and Black Panther 2 had above-average theatrical-to-digital release windows, Ant-Man 3’s 60-day window is about normal for recent MCU films. Therefore, it doesn’t appear that Disney is trying to increase the length of its theatrical runs in order to increase box office potential.
The recently reinstated Disney CEO Bob Iger, who took over for the ousted Bob Chapek in November, may make this choice. Disney+ had a significant role in Chapek’s content strategy, even going so far as to forgo a theatrical release in favour of a straight-to-streaming option for the majority of animated films.
The same-day release of movies for digital purchase and Disney+ streaming will probably have hurt the House of Mouse’s PVOD sales. Perhaps Iger will reinstate the need to wait for streaming releases as part of his effort to undo any harm caused by Chapek.
It’s difficult to predict when Ant-Man 3 will be available on Disney+, but it probably won’t be until after the sequel’s May 16 Blu-ray release.
An April 18 digital release of Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania will be followed by a May 16 Blu-ray release.
