"Theaters aren't going to be here by 2022"
It’s amazing what a steady diet of horse de-wormer and ultraviolet light can do for society. Now we have theaters again.
You might be missing it because PLENTY of people have been talking about what streaming means for home video/digital sales. On here, on Twitter, on Reddit, on YouTube.
I feel the exact same way about the new West Side Story. I would totally have bought it on 4K if not for the fact that it's readily available on Disney+ and HBO Max. If it's on sale for like $10 or less I'll pick it up but as it is the only movies I really buy now are 4K franchise movies to add to my collection like Marvel, DC and Bond films. It's a little bizarre that I'm excited for The Batman to hit streaming next week and I'm equally as excited to buy it on 4K disc. I just dread the day where the big studios like Disney and WB opt to go digital only and completely turn their back on physical media.
It is worth noting that there are exceptions to the rule when it comes to physical media, like No Way Home. Not only is it the biggest movie since Endgame but it's also not streaming anywhere and won't be for at least the near future, so it definitely moved a lot of discs. I wasn't even looking for the steelbook because that probably sold out when the stores opened but even the regular 4K edition was nearly sold out when I picked it up the other day at Target, and that was at 3 in the afternoon on release day.
The bigger issue is the movies that aren't even getting physical releases, at all. CODA, the most mainstream, broadly accessable BP winner in years, is going to only be available to people paying an Apple TV. That's freaking terrible. IMO, the Academy should require a physical release as well as a theatrical one for movies that want to compete.
I was really impatient because I only saw it once in theaters and bought it on digital a month ago, THEN I also bought the 4K disc the other day. So all in all I paid $50 to own it. My justification for doing that was because I otherwise would have watched it again in theaters if not for the Omicron variant exploding and by the time that died down it was closer to the digital release anyway. I was going to lose that $20 watching it one way or another, might as well own it in the process.Yeah I picked up No Way Home on 4k disc...and immediately redeemed the digital copy to watch it.
I would have been able to hold out if the disc release was a month ago but Sony decided to milk that box office for as long as they could. Streaming shows being released on disc isn't unheard of either, just rare. Daredevil's first two seasons were released on disc before its third season aired, same with Stranger Things before each new season. But it should be noted that Daredevil wasn't mass produced in numbers that you'd see for, say, an MCU Blu-ray and the Stranger Things discs have been Target exclusives. That was also 4-5 years ago and the popularity of physical media has only shrunk since then. The Best Buy near my office where I usually go for any new 4K Blu-rays used to have big displays in the front of the store for new releases 5-10 years ago and now you have to go to the basement level of the store for the ever-shrinking DVD/Blu-ray shelves.
