Why Is Disney Halting DVD & Blu

Mar 09, 2024

In a clear message that streaming is dominating the home entertainment landscape — at least in some parts of the world other than the U.S. — DVD and Blu-ray disc sales are reportedly ending in Australia.

According to news.com.au, the Walt Disney Company will stop releasing physical copies of their movies and shows on DVD and Blu-ray in August, following the debut of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" in the formats on August 1. News.com said the move is resulting from the popularity of the company's streaming platform, Disney+.

Australian YouTube content creator Dave Lee has been actively discussing Disney's plans to halt physical sales. "I'll be very candid about home media in Australia. It's doing terribly," Lee said in a letter posted on his Twitter account on July 26, 2023. "Almost no one I know in real life buys physical, the physical 'collectors' online are a very, very small bubble ... it's been dire straits out here for a while. This has been a long time coming ... doesn't mean it doesn't suck."

Lee said he could see the news coming in July 24 tweet after he learned from Australian retailer Sanity that it would no longer carry physical media. Lee also noted in his July 26 letter, "Retailers are constantly having physical 'clearance' sales" and that "Disney is a regular participant in 'clearances.'"

As such, the remaining DVDs and Blu-rays will be available to consumers as long as they are in supply.

While Walt Disney Pictures has released a plethora of titles on DVD and Blu-ray over the years, they're not the only studio impacted by the decision by its parent company to stop the release of all physical media.

news.com.au also reported that all titles from 20th Century — formerly known as 20th Century Fox before Disney officially completed its $71.3 billion acquisition of the studio in March 2019 — are also done distributing DVDs and Blu-rays.

Preceding the release of films on DVD and Blu-rays in the general marketplace, of course, were VHS tapes, which became popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The DVD format made its debut in 1997, which essentially marked the beginning of the end of VHS cassettes. Among the first titles released on DVD were "Blade Runner," Goodfellas," and "The Wizard of Oz." The last movie officially released on VHS came in 2006, when New Line Cinema's 2005 film "A History of Violence" effectively marked the end of an era.

The first batch of movies released on Blu-ray – superior to DVDs in visuals and sound — happened on June 20, 2006. Ten years later, the first batch of 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc movies was released.