Despite inheriting a vault of classic 20th Century Fox movies and having their own vast selection of live action classic, it would appear that Disney have placed future physical 4K Ultra HD releases on hold as the focus turns to Disney Plus. Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits delves into the details.
In truth, it’s not that surprising. While Disney has been aggressive with their animated, Star Wars, and Marvel 4K catalog releases, they’ve made almost no effort to promote any of them, even going so far as to not send out review product to critics. In most cases, they never even issued proper press releases for these titles.
What is a bit odd is that, with Home Alone and Hocus Pocus set to arrive on physical 4K next month, the studio’s 4K catalog disc plan seems to have ended right there.
Some of this may be due to the pandemic, but most of it seems to be the studio’s determination from top to bottom to focus on building Disney+, along with an almost complete lack of appreciation for the live action film legacies of both Disney and Fox among the company’s executives.
From what I can determine, there’s almost no one left on staff from 20th Century Fox after Disney’s purchase of that studio. And the pandemic has resulted in furloughs and cost-cutting at Disney itself, which may soon begin to include significant layoffs.
There are few people now at Disney who have any investment in their classic live action films of the past, in the Touchstone library, and certainly the Fox library beyond Star Wars and the Fox-driven Marvel properties like X-Men. (Sadly, a similar situation is true of many of the Hollywood studios these days.)
Taking all of this into account, it seems that the three biggest factors Disney considers in their valuation of catalog films seem to be: 1) Will it work on Disney+, 2) will it drive sales of consumer products, and 3) will it drive sales of theme park tickets.
Now, in strong economic times, that makes sense: Disney does blockbuster business with those three revenue streams, along with new theatrical releases. But as we’ve seen in this pandemic, when the economy collapses and audiences can no longer visit theme parks or movie theaters, it exposes a major weakness in Disney’s position. And unfortunately, between Touchstone and Fox, there are many films that simply don’t fit on Disney+ (nor are they being exploited on Hulu—of which Disney currently owns nearly 70%).
Traditionally, home video—by which I mean the physical disc business—has been a boon to the Hollywood studios, even (and maybe especially) in tough economic times. This was true after 9/11 certainly and it’s been true through multiple recessions. Even now, all you have to do to confirm this idea is read the recent reporting in the Hollywood trades (like Media Play News) about studio financials:
It’s very interesting and upon deeper reading makes some sense, though you have to wonder where the 20th Century Fox classics like Predator, Alien, Die Hard, Speed etc will call home if not on Disney Plus, a place that felt designed to be the catch-all home for Disney content.
It does seem likely, but is this the death-knell of physical format releases for the Star Wars series? Let’s hope not, but in a digital world perhaps it could be.
- Hardcover Book
- Horton, Cole (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 144 Pages - 07/21/2020 (Publication Date) - becker&mayer! books (Publisher)
