The year 2023 has brought a melancholic time for collectors of physical media. DVDs and Blu-ray discs, which once reaped billions in revenue for Hollywood companies, now face the risk of becoming obsolete, if not irrelevant.
The first blow came at the end of September, as Netflix mailed its last DVD, a copy of the 2010 film True Grit, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. As of Nov. 1, the DVD Netflix website now mourns its past in an interactive in memoriam page.
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Netflix’s DVD business had dwindled from over $1 billion in revenue in 2012 to $146 million by 2022. Although it was a haven for film fanatics with its vast library of new releases and classic films and shows not available for streaming, the shutdown marked the end of an era. With others attempting to fill the gap, such as Redbox, there’s uncertainty about its resurgence.
Following that, Ingram Entertainment, the largest distributor of DVDs in the country, announced an exit from the disc business, and Best Buy, the nation’s largest electronics retailer, declared in October that it would cease selling DVDs and Blu-rays by the end of 2023.
“To state the obvious, the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago,” a Best Buy spokesperson stated, expressing that creating more space for innovation and new tech is the motive for removing the rows of discs.
Despite these changes, Amazon and Walmart remain in the game, and there are reports of Walmart negotiating with Studio Distribution Services for its physical media ventures. However, with Netflix and Best Buy backing out and potential further exits, the fate of DVD home entertainment has never been more perilous.
Nevertheless, there’s a glimmer of hope. A transformative move by major streamers, allied with trends in the music industry, suggests a way forward for physical media.
With content curation on streaming platforms undergoing changes, evidenced by Warner Bros. Discovery’s removal of thousands of hours of programming from HBO Max and similar measures by Disney+, Hulu, and Paramount+, the value of physical media is reinforced. This parallels the lesson from the music industry, which saw a surge in vinyl records and CD sales despite the dominance of streaming. The unique experiences and exclusive content that physical media provides could well be a way forward.
In a landscape where titles rapidly rotate in and out of streaming platforms, owning physical copies offers a sense of permanence. Hence, it might be wise to secure physical media before they disappear from digital libraries.
First published in the Nov. 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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