It’s been a long time since Avatar hit theater screens, and with the sequel coming out, many people may be considering rewatching. Unfortunately, Disney has taken one option off the table, removing the movie from the Disney Plus global catalog without warning.
This was first noticed before What’s in Disney Plus (Opens in a new tab)and confirmed that Avatar appears to be absent from the Disney Plus catalogs in the US and UK.
In other words, if you want to watch Avatar from now until an unspecified point in the future, you will have to pay an extra fee for it – a Disney Plus subscription or not. It’s another example of the dangers of not actually owning your content, as companies can effectively pull it off whenever they want.
The question here is why would Disney do such a thing. With Avatar: The Way of Water arriving on December 16, you’d have thought the company would push Disney Plus as a way to watch the movie. But we’re just over a month away from the original Avatar bringing back in cinemas, with reimagined visuals and sound, and this could be a tactic to drive Avatar fans to theaters and earn some additional Disney revenue from the box office.
One of the biggest gains was Avatar after Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019. The movie grossed more than $2.7 billion in its first theatrical run, according to Box Office Mojo (Opens in a new tab)and at that time there were four sequels in different stages of development.
But Disney never took a penny from that revenue, or the additional $44.8 million that was made after the 2011 special edition was reissued.
This looks like cash grab
It’s no surprise that Disney wanted to milk the first avatar all they could, before releasing the sequel. This isn’t the first time Disney has done this either, with re-releases in 2020 (in the Asia Pacific regions) and 2021 (China) bringing in $1.2 million and $57.7 million.
However, this will be the first time that Avatar has been shown in US theaters in over a decade, and there is no doubt that Disney wants to earn as much as possible. Especially since director James Cameron had a problem Remastering the movie (Opens in a new tab) 4K resolution and higher frame rate – the latter is unlikely to look good when viewed at home.
There’s no doubt that the re-release is a critical grab, and there’s an appeal to be able to experience films in a theatrical setting. You can’t get the same audio or big screen experience at home, no matter how good your home cinema setup is. Disney offers an experience, and one that some people will surely be happy to pay for.
But that doesn’t change the fact that pulling Avatar from Disney Plus before a re-release is a dirty tactic – assuming it was done on purpose. It’s not the reissue itself that gets me, the companies will do everything they can to increase revenue; It’s a fact that Disney has seemingly removed choice from the equation.
Another recent example would be Sony and PS Store. While the company stopped selling movies some time ago, watch them early July Announced that StudioCanal movies will be withdrawn from user accounts (Opens in a new tab) The movies these people paid for. Sony blamed “evolving licensing agreements with content providers”. It remains unclear whether or not refunds will be issued when the change occurs on August 31.
But given that Disney completely owns both Avatar and Disney Plus, this is not a case of expired contracts and rights trading. The main benefit for companies that operate their own streaming platforms, rather than selling to the likes of Netflix, is that the back catalog should in theory remain fairly consistent.
Sure, the Disney Plus version of the Avatar might not be available in 4K, or any of the other improvements Cameron added to the movie prior to its re-release. But it was available to watch and enjoy when the viewer felt it. It’s also included as part of an $8 per month subscription, which is a fraction of the cost of a movie ticket. Especially given inflation and the rising cost of living.
This is why Blu-ray is still applicable
If you have Avatar on Blu-ray or DVD, there’s nothing Disney can do about it. There is no 4K Blu-ray version, so it’s pretty much the same version you found on Disney Plus, but the movie is yours. It doesn’t come from a server, it’s running a disk in your possession. It has always been, and still is, the main benefit of purchasing physical media compared to digital and streaming platforms.
Of course, this is an expensive way to do it. The Avatar Extended Edition Blu-ray (Opens in a new tab) Currently $14 on Amazon, while theatrical cut (Opens in a new tab) It is $19. That’s a lot more than a Disney Plus subscription, or the $5 cost Buy a digital copy (Opens in a new tab).
That’s why live streaming and digital buying are so popular. It’s cheaper and more cost effective, and you don’t need to find a place to store all your cases and discs. Unfortunately, it also puts consumers at the mercy of rights holders, who can apparently revoke access if it doesn’t suit them.
It all depends on whether Avatar removal is a deliberate act. Disney has been getting into a lot of hot water lately with different areas of the catalog. Censored version of Falcon and the Winter Soldier Disney Plus hit again in March (Opens in a new tab)while memorials have been removed from Luke Cage and The Punisher for the actor Reg E Cathy and Marvel Legend Stan Lee (Opens in a new tab) Shortly after both shows hit the podium.
According to Disney, these changes were errors, and they were reverted back to their original version. So, Disney has a history of making weird changes to its catalog, only to turn things back in after people notice. Right now, it’s too early to say if Avatar is one of those bugs, and whether the movie will be restored.
With broadcast you don’t own anything
But the timing is suspicious or not, the point remains. The main risk with broadcasting is that you can access the content and it will be withdrawn if the rights holder decides to do so. It doesn’t matter if the intent is malicious or if the whole thing is an IT bug.
Right now, for anyone who wants to watch Avatar at home, it’s best to get a copy on Blu-ray or some kind of digital format. Because we don’t know when the movie will be back on stream. I’ve reached out to Disney to clarify the situation, and will update this story if we hear back.
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