Removed Disney+ Original Films Become Available To Buy & Rent On Digital Platforms Internationally
Earlier this year, Disney removed over a hundred original films and shows globally from its streaming services, including Hulu, Star+ and Disney+. These removals were done as part of an impairment charge to write off over $2 billion dollars of costs for Disney’s streaming service business.
Following some backlash regarding the removals, in September, Walt Disney Studios made many of the former original films available to rent or purchase in the United States on digital platforms like Vudu, Amazon and Apple.
Over the past week, some titles have started appearing on digital platforms to buy or rent in other countries worldwide, including the UK, Australia and Canada. However, the availability of titles does vary between countries.
The list of former Disney+ Original films available to purchase/rent included:
- Crater
- Better Nate Than Ever
- Flora & Ulysses
- The One And Only Ivan
- Rosaline
- Cheaper By The Dozen
- The Princess
- Darby And The Dead
In a perfect world, these films would have just been returned to Disney+ for subscribers to enjoy. Unfortunately, due to the rules of how things are written off as an asset for Disney+, that’s not going to be possible for a while. However, they have been able to get around that by offering the films to purchase or rent.
It’s certainly not ideal, but at least these films are now available to purchase or rent legally if you should so desire. Though I do wonder how much they’ll actually make for Disney, since they were initially removed from Disney+ because not enough people watched them.
Removing these titles from Disney+ also highlights one of the major problems for streaming services, especially as these titles haven’t been made available on physical media.
Will you be renting or purchasing these former Disney+ Original films? Let us know on social media!
Roger Palmer
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