A few weeks ago a lot of coverage was put on the American Store BestBuy and the fact they had made the decision to no longer stock physical media.
An understandable choice maybe with sales down so they are sure to be able to use that space to maximize their profits with other stock.
But it all makes us a bit sad, we wouldn’t say we have a massive collection of physical media, we certainly have reduced it over time, but we definitely would be above average these days.
With people wanting more space, and with the success of streaming services, it is clear that following the likes of Video Cassettes, Cassettes, Compact Discs and the like, DVD’s have become the next to be disposed of.
But is this a decision taken too soon?
A DVD is something that is yours to own and keep, and to watch, providing you have the tech to still play it of course.
Buying off a streaming platform does not necessarily mean you own the title, but also it can be another issue altogether.
It was recently announced that the third in the trilogy, 28 Years Later, was in the works, this would follow 28 Weeks Later (at the time of writing, it is available on Disney+)
But very quickly many articles started appearing up on social media, that the original film, 28 Days Later, was unavailable to watch on any streaming sites.
Of course, it is highly likely that is because it is being upgraded in quality, so it can be released in Ultra HD for when the third movie is eventually released.
However, that does not solve the problem as that is a way off presumably.
If after reading all the articles you think oh, I forgot it was directed by Danny Boyle, or it was written by Alex Garland or even that it stars Peaky Blinders/Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy and decided you want to revisit it now.
Even just reading the numerous articles had us thinking ‘We really need to revisit this film.’
We quickly found a solution on a walk in our local town centre, when on our latest cinema visit.
The good thing for film/physical media fans is with so many collections being removed for space, a lot of people choose to donate them to the charity shop of their preferred cause.
Being old enough to remember, DVD’s and even Blu-ray now take the place alongside other forms of physical media, such as books and compact discs as a low-cost item.
DVDs can now be the price equivalent of what the video cassettes where when they became widely disposed of when people upgraded to the DVD player.
From a visit to our town’s local charity shops, discs now range from 20p a disc to £1, with BluRay, newer or older titles sometimes commanding higher prices.
So as for 28 Days Later, it was a huge British hit and did well in sales, we actually saw it in quite a few charity shops, we even saw it in one shop as part of a boxset with the sequel.
However, we chose to visit our charity shop of choice, a local-based one that supports animals and picked it up in a 5 for a pound deal.
The DVD collections that are being donated have been built up over some ime of course so this has also helped up find much older films we had never seen.
Just recently we even picked up the original David Lynch film version of Dune as an example, and it was a 2-disc collector’s edition.
Another thing that streaming will not give you that the physical media certainly used to do, is to have an abundance of special features for the film fan to enjoy.
As an example, the 28 Days Later disc has deleted scenes, a making of, an alternate story boarded ending and audio commentary.
We would love for physical media to not only continue, but make a comeback.
With so many companies now setting up their own streaming sites that you have to subscribe just to watch your go to movies if you don’t own them.
We hope we never have to have to watch Jaws, our favourite film of all time, and not pick up a physical copy with Roger Kastel’s iconic poster on the box.
For us, a loved film feels more special when you have something to hold, especially if a special edition such as a steelbook as an example.
So if you are a film fan, and the next time you want to watch a film, and you can’t find it on streaming, before you go to eBay or Amazon, why not see if you can help your local charity.
You’ll probably get it cheaper too and you can feel good about yourself knowing you have donated to charity as well.
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