Disney Is Opening the Vault for Its New Streaming Service

© Disney Disney Is Opening the Vault for Its New Streaming Service

By Michele Debczak, Mental Floss

The legendary Disney Vault will be permanently opened for the company's new streaming platform. As Digital Trends reports, the subscription service Disney Plus will include digital versions of every movie in Disney's library, including the hard-to-find titles currently sealed away in the vault.

Disney CEO Bob Iger announced the news in a recent investors meeting. He told shareholders that "the movies that you speak of that traditionally have been kept in a ‘vault’ and brought out basically every few years" will be added to the service "at some point fairly soon after launch."

That means Disney fans will no longer have to wait around for Disney to re-release old films whenever the company feels like, as has been the case up to now. After a movie's initial home-video release, Disney takes the film off the market, making it impossible to watch unless you already own a copy. Every so often, Disney re-releases old movies in limited batches and then seals them away in the vault again. This pattern is designed to increase demand and keep the Disney catalog fresh for new generations of viewers.

There are currently 34 movies in the Disney Vault, including animated classics like Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Dumbo (1941) and direct-to-video sequels like The Return of Jafar (1994) and The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998). All of these will be available on Disney Plus after the platform debuts sometime in 2019.

Making Disney's entire pre-existing library available to stream is a major draw, but that's not the only content the service will offer. Disney Plus will feature original shows, including series based on movies like Monsters Inc. (2001) and High School Musical (2006). And any new movies that Disney releases, like Avengers: Endgame, Star Wars: Episode IX, Frozen 2, and The Lion King remake, will appear on the platform within a year of their release date. The downside for Disney lovers is that any movies owned by the company will disappear from other streaming services by the time Disney Plus launches—but having every Disney movie in one place may be worth the price of a new subscription for many fans of the brand.