Disney Pulls Physical Media From Australia?

Marvel

Disney is allegedly ceasing new DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD physical media releases in Australia in the near future, with Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” on August 9th tipped to be the final title getting a retail disc in that market.

This story has taken some turns over the past 36 hours. It began Monday night Australian time via a posting on Facebook from Australian retailer Sanity. That posting said: “Farewell to Disney’s physical media in Australia” before linking to its catalogue of Disney/Fox properties.

This led to the obvious question as to whether they were joking or had gotten their information mixed up. The retailer doubled down on the post, saying in the responses: “To help clear up any confusion or questions. There is no way we would post this if we didn’t know it was happening. Guardians of The Galaxy will be the last preorder.”

The posting remained there for around twelve hours before subsequently being removed from the page. Nonetheless, photo captures of the post have quickly proliferated across social media, home video enthusiast boards and outlets including The Digital Bits, Resetera and Disney Fanatic.

The news fired up numerous Australian media writers who reached out to Disney for a comment or clarification – so far to no official response. Queensland film critic Peter Walkden posted on Twitter that he spoke with staff at a branch of major retailer JB Hi-Fi who “confirmed that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 will be the last #Disney release to go on disc until further notice.”

Searches across numerous Australian retail sites for potential upcoming Disney home video titles confirm that the live-action “The Little Mermaid,” Pixar’s “Elemental” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” are not listed – even as ‘Mermaid’ is available for pre-order on the sites of US and EU retailers.

In fact, the only apparent online listing for ‘Mermaid’ potentially even coming to Australia at present is a page on Blu-ray.com which appears to be more of a placeholder than anything else.

Cut to an hour ago and long-running journalist Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits posted the closest we’ll likely get to a confirmation until either a press release or direct response from Disney is issued. He says:

“We have confirmed today with multiple industry, distributor, and retailer sources in the region that Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is indeed pulling out of the Australian market in terms of physical media.

This follows similar moves in Asia (save for Japan) and Latin America, and the reason is apparently down to the gradual collapse of physical disc sales in the region, the growth of Disney+ Star streaming, and also the rise of global retailers (think Amazon, Zavvi, etc).

None of that will be of any comfort to disc fans in Australia, who will now have to pay a hefty shipping premium to import titles from outside the country. But it is true that Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 3 will be the last new-release Disney title to get a physical release in the region.

Previously-released titles may continue to be available for purchase until the end of the year, but that will be up to individual retailers.

This is sadly not a shock. The availability of physical media in Australian retail stores from all studios has been shrinking in recent years, with only a fraction of the titles physically available elsewhere still being released in Australia.

Back in May, YouTube channel The Doctor Who Show posted a copy of a letter they received from Universal Pictures International Australasia in response to an enquiry about an upcoming ‘Who’ title.

That letter from Universal’s office in Sydney, Australia said in a key paragraph: “Due to the long term decline of the physical home entertainment market, we have made the painful decision to exit this category during 2023 and what will happen to future BBC releases in the region is not yet known at this point.”

However, in the two months since Universal is still very much releasing new titles to disc in the Australian market with listings for “Fast X” already available for pre-order whilst “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “Renfield,” and “Book Club: The Next Chapter” and currently available at retailers.

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