The collector’s amongst you probably won’t be happy to hear that Disney is shutting down its long running physical media service the Disney Movie Club.
Yesterday, the house of mouse announced that it would be shutting down its Disney Movie Club, a service that for over the past couple of decades has allowed many to buy various VHS tapes, DVDs, and Blu-rays of the company’s works, including some are quite rare – such as one of the last VHS tapes Disney ever released, Cars. “We’ve enjoyed serving you for the last 23 years, but consumer behaviour and viewing preferences continue to evolve so we have made the tough decision to close Disney Movie Club,” reads a statement on the closure.
For those that have never heard of the service, it was essentially a subscription that let you buy various bits of Disney on physical media, where you’d get sent the latest releases, typically with some kind of bonus. Importantly, it included releases that would often be hard to get, with classics like A Goofy Movie, and lesser known titles such as The Black Cauldron. Strange World, mostly a Disney+ only release, also received a 4K release through the service, and with it shuttering, I can only imagine how much it will skyrocket in price.
But as reported by The Digital Bits, as one door closes, another opens. Disney and Sony have struck up a deal together that will see the Spider-Man producer take over the animation giant’s physical media production. That means Sony will be responsible for things like the film’s quality, packaging, and shipping them out to distributors, but it isn’t currently clear if the shuttering of the Disney Movie Club will mean that you’ll suddenly be able to buy all manner of Disney titles on DVD or Blu-ray.
Disney generally handles its physical releases poorly even for its standard titles, so hopefully this change will bring an improvement to them, but it’ll likely be a while before we see this change take effect.
In the meantime, Sony has just recently had a massive box office flop with Madame Web, so don’t expect a sequel to that one anytime soon.