Disney Announces It Will Stop Selling DVDs and Blu-ray Discs in the Entirety of Australia

The company says that physical media does not do enough business to continue.

By Michael Hein

Disney announced last week that it will soon stop selling DVDs and Blu-rays in Australia and New Zealand, signaling bad news for fans of physical media. According to Australian news outlets, Disney announced the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 for home media, but with it came this sad news about discs. With streaming lineups so uncertain, many fans are wondering if access to some titles could soon be threatened in general.

The Walt Disney Company announced that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be the last new movie to be released on DVD and Blu-ray in New Zealand and Australia. At that time, the company will stop importing new stock of previous titles on DVD and Blu-ray as well. Once all those copies have sold, Australians and New Zealanders will need to buy and sell used copies among themselves or rely on international sellers if they want to get hard copies of movies and TV shows. For new releases, they will only be able to turn to international sellers.

Disney claimed that this decision came down to a matter of dwindling sales of physical copies and increasing popularity of streaming VOD. Still, there are dozens of stories about streamers disappointing fans by removing certain titles from their streaming libraries in recent years, and many saw physical media as the last reliable holdout. With that gone, there's no telling how obscure some titles might become.

Disney itself is generally known for releasing new movies on its subscription-based streaming platform Disney+ relatively soon after they premiere in theaters. However, the company has also taken a lot of heat for "purging" titles recently, including exclusive productions that aren't available anywhere else. That includes the recent revival of Willow, a Disney+ original that was removed from the platform and is now not available on any format anywhere.

So far, Disney has not hinted that this new strategy could extend to other countries, although fans can't help but worry. Many on social media say they are bolstering their collections now more than ever, and are advising fellow movie buffs to do the same. Some are also recommending donations to public libraries as a good way to contribute to this preservation effort.

Still, even those collectors admit they are in the minority. Critic Dave Lee tweeted: "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."

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