In this day and age, we see more and more companies switch over to digital distribution and streaming. The concept of having a movie or show to watch at the click of a button is a rather revolutionary innovation. Not to mention companies save money on the volume of physical media that is printed for retail.
Now it seems that the first phase of Disney’s plan to go all digital is slowly taking shape as the company announced that after the release of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 on BluRay and DVD, the company will no longer release physical media in the entire continent of Australia.
The decision was apparently made due to declining physical sales in the region and a shift in focus to direct-to-consumer through their Disney+ streaming platform.
While this decision only applies to Australia (for the moment), other smaller regions have apparently seen lower availability for physical media at retail.
This is rather similar to when Disney began shutting down their various television channels across multiple Asian markets, with many Disney and Fox-owned networks that had run for years suddenly disconnected. The reason is a focus on Disney+ for media distribution.
Many film historians and collectors are against the idea of digital-only releases as in the past certain films have either been “altered” or “updated” for any given reason. For example, the 1984 Disney-owned film Splash was censored when released on Disney+ with CGI hair added to cover Daryl Hannah’s butt.
Perhaps one of the most well-known examples of changing films are the various “Special Editions” of George Lucas’ Star Wars series. Seeing the original theatrical cuts requires viewers to jump through multiple hoops as they have been hidden away like someone’s dirty laundry. 
With Disney pulling out other companies like Paramount, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery may do so as well. It’s only a matter of time before they try to do that over here.
What do you think? Should Disney go all digital or would you prefer to actually own your movies?
Source: Collider
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