Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Taking Over Disney's Physical Media Production

[Bubbles-11]

here are some significant developments happening within the home video industry of late, developments that I’ve been spending a lot of time investigating and really digging into these past few weeks here at The Digital Bits.

And I can now confidently report that one of them is this:

Disney and Sony have just inked a major deal for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to take over all of Disney’s physical media production going forward.

This means that Sony will handle and oversee the actual authoring and compression of discs, that they’ll work with the replicators and packaging vendors, and that they’ll oversee the titles as they go out to the distributors and on to retailers.

I first received word of this deal about two weeks ago, apparently within twenty-four hours of the ink drying, and I’ve now confirmed it with multiple independent sources within the industry—people that I trust and have known and worked with for many years.

https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/m...ts/022024-1000

[IndyMLVC]

And how do we theorize this will affect us, if at all?

[danman227460]

Originally Posted by IndyMLVC

And how do we theorize this will affect us, if at all?

It depends on what Disney is allowing Sony to do. Is Disney finally going to open its vaults and give Sony carte blanche to choose the titles it wants to release? Or does Disney retain the rights to choose the titles? So it will still be the current trickle drip of releases but now handled by a more competent company.

The former is great news for physical media while the latter is just the status quo but we might get potentially better releases.

[milojthatch]

Originally Posted by danman227460

It depends on what Disney is allowing Sony to do. Is Disney finally going to open its vaults and give Sony carte blanche to choose the titles it wants to release? Or does Disney retain the rights to choose the titles? So it will still be the current trickle drip of releases but now handled by a more competent company.

The former is great news for physical media while the latter is just the status quo but we might get potentially better releases.

That's exactly it. I'm not getting too excited till I've seen six months to a year of offerings first.

Originally Posted by Zeether

Alright, I'm gonna put this out there: past and present Disney TVA stuff needs a Blu-ray release BAD. Kim Possible had only two seasons on DVD from Movie Club and it has 1080p HD versions of every episode and both movies streaming on D+. There is ZERO reason not to do a boxset of it. The show deserves one, full stop, same with Owl House and Ducktales 2017. This is that golden chance for it to happen and it should happen.

I'd love to see Zorro, the Disney Anthology series, the Disney Afternoon and One Saturday Morning cartoons come to blu-ray first and foremost! Not holding my breath...

[disneygeek98]

Originally Posted by milojthatch

That's exactly it. I'm not getting too excited till I've seen six months to a year of offerings first.



I'd love to see Zorro, the Disney Anthology series, the Disney Afternoon and One Saturday Morning cartoons come to blu-ray first and foremost! Not holding my breath...

I would too, I hope so much that Sony has someone who cares about Disney's legacy like Disney used to have with Dick Cook who is why the Walt Disney Treasures were made and they can give us a Walt Disney Treasures like series and finally give us proper releases of Walt-era shorts and TV on physical media.

I'm not holding my breath either though, and I suspect that with the Disney Movie Club closing that we'll most likely see primarily just new theatrical releases in terms of Disney on physical media.

A real shame as a Walt-era and Disney Afternoon fan. It saddens me that the end of Disney Movie Club means we'll likely never see things like Texas John Slaughter, Corky and White Shadow, The Horsemasters, Donald Duck and Ludwing Von Drake Anthology series episodes, Bonkers, or Aladdin the series on physical media. Or the rest of Elfego Baca, The Swamp Fox, Spin and Marty, Adventures of the Gummi Bears, or Darkwing Duck just to name a few things I really wish they'd release.

[-JKR-]

Originally Posted by disneygeek98

I would too, I hope so much that Sony has someone who cares about Disney's legacy like Disney used to have with Dick Cook who is why the Walt Disney Treasures were made and they can give us a Walt Disney Treasures like series and finally give us proper releases of Walt-era shorts and TV on physical media.

I'm not holding my breath either though, and I suspect that with the Disney Movie Club closing that we'll most likely see primarily just new theatrical releases in terms of Disney on physical media.

A real shame as a Walt-era and Disney Afternoon fan. It saddens me that the end of Disney Movie Club means we'll likely never see things like Texas John Slaughter, Corky and White Shadow, The Horsemasters, Donald Duck and Ludwing Von Drake Anthology series episodes, Bonkers, or Aladdin the series on physical media. Or the rest of Elfego Baca, The Swamp Fox, Spin and Marty, Adventures of the Gummi Bears, or Darkwing Duck just to name a few things I really wish they'd release.

Does the Warner Bros. Archive handle Universal movies?

[jedidarrick]

Sony: “I’m your huckleberry.”

[Legend293]

Hopefully means more mavel and star wars

[Darth Marcus]

I legitimately might cry. Think of all the possibilities. Tombstone, all the Die Hards (yes, even that one), all the Aliens, all the Predators, the Disney Bruckheimer flicks, The Rocketeer, Disney Animation, The Sound of Music, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Planet of the Apes flicks, Young Frankenstein, The French Connection, Wall Street, The Last of the Mohicans, and many more on 4K disc with DOLBY VISION.

[captainjoe]

Holy shit this could be the saving grace for Disney titles if Sony calls the shots. Walt Disney Classics vol. 1 anyone?

[Schwartzy]

Actual Quality catalog release inclming? :O

[Rzzzz]

Come on Sony, give us all of these on blu!

[Lost-in-time]

Are Sony discs typically region locked?

[jimcorenson]

Originally Posted by Lost-in-time

Are Sony discs typically region locked?

No not to my knowledge

Maybe others can confirm it more ?

[ben6543]

Just give me Never Cry Wolf on blu ray you cowards.

[doctorD]

My home theater will be so happy again...I might have to throw a party. I may even thing about re-purchasing certain titles if the audio is an improvement. My wife will not be happy.

[Ant1010]

Captain Ron.. Lets go Sony

[GeoffOliver]

No surprise since Mill Creek was already handling a huge chunk of Disney's back catalog of existing OOP discs, especially ones under the Fox brand. I doubt Sony will choose what to release since that's clearly not the case with Mill Creek either.

[Ranger517]

Could be huge for stuff like X-Files coming back into print on blu-ray.

Maybe even blu-rays and UHDs of Barbarian, The Empty Man and Hellraiser (2022)

[Member-865437]

Sony puts out top-notch restorations and remasters, so this very well could be a good thing. Only time will tell.