Disney is reportedly sitting on 4K remasters of 20 or more classic Fox movies, and the company has no plans to release them. Getting its start in the animated movie space, Disney is now one of the biggest and most well-known companies and brands in the world, not only operating wildly popular theme parks around the globe, but expanding its media empire division through strategic purchases. Disney bought 21st Century Fox in 2019 after buying Pixar in 2006, Marvel in 2009, and Lucasfilm in 2012, meaning it now has a massive catalog of titles under its control.
According to a new report from The Digital Bits, 20 classic titles from the Fox catalog have been remastered in 4K, but Disney currently has no plans to release them. This means no VOD release, no Disney Plus release, and no physical media release. The potential silver lining here, as outlined in the report, is that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has inked a deal to handle all of Disney’s physical media releases going forward, which could mean a streamlining of the company’s physical media production process and maybe a release for some of these titles in the future.
10 Best Movies On Disney Plus For Adults
While Disney+ is a great place for family-friendly content, there are some excellent movies aimed at more more audiences as well.
Disney’s Relationship To Physical Media Explained
And Why Physical Media Is Still Important
It’s no secret that physical media – DVD, Blu-rays, and 4K UHDs – now represents a very small portion of the home media entertainment landscape. The last few decades have seen a steady decline in the popularity of these physical media options as the reliance on streaming services and VOD platforms increases. For most people, in most cases, streaming a movie or buying it on VOD is easier and more affordable than buying a disc.
Despite Disney touting Disney Plus as the single best destination to experience the movies in its vast catalog, there remain those who are committed to physical media. The argument for physical media is that, free from the harsh compression that comes with streaming, a 4K UHD disc provides the best possible audio and visual quality one can experience from home. Plus, buying a physical copy of a movie means it truly is yours forever, whereas buying something on VOD isn’t necessarily a guarantee that it will always be in your digital library.
There certainly remains hope for physical media, however, as Oppenheimer’s recent 4K release, which saw the title sell out from retailers around the country, proves. It’s unclear which 4K remastered Fox titles are being sat on, but Disney evidently doesn’t see a way to make these releases profitable, otherwise they would have been released by now. Hopefully, with Sony now handling Disney‘s physical media division, these titles will eventually become available to consumers.
