Today is March 12, 2024. Tuesdays are generally the street date for movies on physical media. TODAY was supposed to be something special for enthusiasts, especially of the 4K UHD variety. We’re supposed to be getting THREE James Cameron movies on 4K today: Aliens, The Abyss, and True Lies. Now, the only movie here that was available previously in high-definition was Aliens. The previous physical media releases of the other two movies were DVD-only, at least here in the United States. So, it took years, but James Cameron finally got Disney to release three of his most highly-requested movies on 4K. Awesome, yeah? Absolutely. But there’s a problem, though: The supply ain’t there. People (including myself) had these movies pre-ordered for months and months in advance, but because Disney seems to have failed to provide enough initial copies to retailers, a lot of people that pre-ordered these 4K discs are having to wait until retailers can re-stock them. Is this a Disney issue? Yes, but that’s not the only problem here. I tend to use Amazon Prime to get most of my physical media. This isn’t the first time that Amazon has completely failed to honor pre-orders on time. THIS is the response that a lot of people are going to get when they ask Amazon’s customer service about their pre-orders: “Thanks for reaching out. You can expect your order to arrive by the delivery date which was provided in your order confirmation email. If no delivery date was provided, you’ll be notified via email when your order is preparing to ship.” It is a completely canned and automated response from a company, that by its very size should have more than enough copies available to satisfy the demand.
This is where Disney is a huge part of the problem. They’ve been trying to get out of the physical media game for YEARS since the inception of Disney Plus streaming service. In fact, in the last month, it was announced that Disney would be handing off their physical media stuff to Sony, which is a great idea. Sony knows what the hell they’re doing. But the issue of Disney still remains. They’ve never really put a lot of effort into their physical media. Not for a long time. I honestly think the only reason we are getting these 4k releases AT ALL is because James Cameron is forcing the issue. For better or worse, Cameron is not a guy you really want to say no to. He brings in ALL the money. He has THREE of the highest-grossing films of all time under his belt. Two Avatar movies and Titanic. Do you really want to tell this guy to pound sand? At the end of the day, it IS just physical media and these movies WILL be available in the next week or so, but the fact of the matter is that a lot of people who were anticipating their pre-orders shipping today are going to have to wait longer or cancel their orders because some dumb fuck somewhere completely under-estimated the demand for these movies on 4K discs. There was NO reason to under-estimate the demand. People had been clamoring for these movies on 4K for YEARS, so don’t tell me that you under-estimated the demand. That’s bullshit. It’s also not Amazon that is facing shortage issues. We’re seeing this problem all across the retail industry, online as well as brick-and-mortar. Again, all signs point to Disney screwing things up.
There’s a reason why I DON’T pre-order stuff. The supply rarely meets the demand. I didn’t pre-order the Aliens 4K because I already the movie on Blu-Ray. Yeah, it’s gotten remastered, but when it comes to special features, the Alien Anthology set that I have already has most if not all of these features. 4K is not really a big deal for me as I don’t actually have a 4K TV or monitor. These sets come with Blu-Ray discs in addition to the 4K, so when I finally decide to upgrade, I’ll have them. But like everybody else, I’m having to wait until Amazon/*insert retailer* restocks these discs. Thankfully, Amazon’s not going to charge me until the discs ship, but I shouldn’t have to be waiting for another week or two before I see them. That defeats the entire fucking purpose of pre-ordering this stuff. This will be the last time I pre-order anything. So, my message to Disney and any retailer that didn’t stock enough: Get your fucking shit together.