Disney may be focusing on physical media again full time!

[Mickeyfan1990]

For those who love buying their favorite Disney (and Fox, Lucasfilm, etc.) films and shows on home video, there is GREAT news from last week!!!!
https://www.mediaplaynews.com/says-ceo- ... ney-focus/

"Disney reported a Q1 operating loss of $212 million on revenue of $2.46 billion in its “content sales/licensing and other” segment, in part due to a dearth of home entertainment releases. The decrease in home entertainment results were due to lower unit sales of new release titles, reflecting fewer releases, and catalog titles.

Iger believes the push toward streaming theatrical titles undermined the licensing and retail businesses.

“Home video, at one point as we called it, was extremely lucrative for our company,” Iger said. “We’re looking at all of that [again].”

The CEO believes content can co-exist on traditional distribution platforms and streaming without damaging either due to differing platform audiences.

“It’s already clear to us that the content exclusivity that we felt would be so valuable in growing subscribers was not as valuable as we thought,” Iger said. “While eventually everything will migrate to streaming. We’re not there yet.”"


Took him some time, but Iger finally got it! The return of Disney on physical media is finally going to begin.

[Disney's Divinity]

Hopefully they release a new iteration of the film lines (Signature was the last round). Either way, that's good to hear. The industry tries way too hard to jump 10 steps ahead of the consumers. DVD -> Blu-ray -> 4K -> now streaming, when most people have barely moved up from DVD yet.

[Mickeyfan1990]

Plus some people either prefer physical media anyway or think it's better to have all viewing options equally.

[carolinakid]

Call me old school but I don’t like streaming as a way to watch my favorite films and shows. I much prefer having DVDS and CDs for my music.

I recently purchased Disney Short Films Volume 3, Strange World, Survivor Seasons 42 & 43 and the new Funny Girl Broadway Cast Recording.

[Disney's Divinity]

That's true, Mickeyfan, that's how I am. I prefer physical media period, only resort to digital when I'm forced to. /sigh And that's what Disney was trying to do, force everyone to digital / streaming (to be fair they weren't the only ones).

@carolinakid: I plan to get the Funny Girl new Broadway Cast recording, too, soon, and Strange World later this year.

[carolinakid]

Divinity, you’ll love it! While Barbra remains the definitive Fanny Brice, imo, Lea Michelle does a FABULOUS job!
We can always use another recording of this wonderful score!

[blackcauldron85]

I wonder how many of the Disney+ originals will get Blu releases...!?

[UmbrellaFish]

I wonder how many of the Disney+ originals will get Blu releases...!?

I wonder that, too. It deeply annoys me that I can’t own Hamilton on disc.

Disney did announce they were partnering with Mill Creek Entertainment in the past couple weeks. But I think the word was that it was unlikely to be anything new— just rereleases of stuff previously released on Blu ray. But hopefully that includes licenses Fox sold to Twilight Time which have since gone out of print— like with Hamilton, I am deeply annoyed that I can’t own 9 to 5 on Blu-ray (because if I really wanted to, I’d have to pay an eBay seller $100+ for the OOP disc).

[Disney's Divinity]

I feel sure Disenchanted and especially Hocus Pocus 2 will at least end up in 2-packs with their originals. Of course, I thought they were both underwhelming, so I'm not so concerned. I did finally pick up Disenchanted's soundtrack last week though.

As for other things, who knows. There are so many things on Disney+ and hulu (which is Disney-owned for the moment) that have no physical release that I'd like to have. Howard, Hillary, etc. I personally would like to have the little WDAS shorts / things, whatever you call them, like those of Olaf re-enacting various movies, Zootopia+, the little short post-Luca, eventually Tiana, etc. But somehow I don't think those little things will ever be released; maybe Tiana since it's supposed to be a full-fledged TV series (20 minute episodes rather 3 minute shorts), I think. I would like Pinocchio to get a release just so I could get it for cheap a few years down the line or on DMI, like I did with some of the other remakes.

[Vlad]

I would definitely buy Disenchanted and Hocus Pocus 2 on Blu-ray. The original Hocus Pocus celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, so there's quite a big chance that Disney will release a new Anniversary Edition on Blu-ray for Halloween, and maybe they'll also release the sequel.