As if it was not enough for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer to be one of the summer’s big blockbusters, earning over $900 billion at the box office and even re-released to IMAX screens a few weeks ago, the film has pretty much sold out of its 4K physical discs at major retailers such as Amazon and Best Buy. It has moved Universal to assure fans they are working hard to restock 4K discs for the holidays.
“We are happy so many consumers are embracing Oppenheimer in 4K Ultra HD and understand that some retailers may currently be out of stock,” Universal said in a statement. “Universal is working to replenish those retailers quickly so fans can watch the film at home in the best picture quality possible.”
Hopefully it will not be long before Universal is able to provide more copies of Oppenheimer on 4K, but it is a noticeable bump in a trend as several major retailers are stocking less physical media of films, TV series and music as streaming becomes more and more popular. Best Buy in particular recently announced it will phase out selling 4K, Blu-ray and DVD both in store and online in the early part of 2024. Nolan, who is known for his dedication to film as he prefers to shoot on film rather than digital and has employed IMAX cameras in each of his productions ever since The Dark Knight, has been a vocal skeptic of streaming simply for the fact that audiences do not own a movie or TV series that premieres exclusively on a streaming service.
The news of Oppenheimer‘s sold out status is timely as just last week Nolan spoke to IGN at length about his worry over the future of physical media as it becomes less popular. “If you buy a 4K UHD, you buy a Blu-ray, it’s on your shelf, it’s yours. No company is going to break into your house and take it from you and repossess it. It’s yours and you own it. That’s never really the case with any form of digital distribution,” Nolan told the outlet.
It has certainly become a more pronounced subject as streaming services, but mostly Warner Bros. Discovery with Max and Disney with Disney+, have pulled a number of films and series made exclusively for streaming with no way for audiences to watch them again. Both Nolan and his wife and producing partner Emma Thomas shared their concern over this trend, especially WB’s habit of cancelling films like Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme for the purpose of a tax write-off instead of releasing the films into theatres or streaming.
“I’m beginning to have conversations with filmmakers who have made successful films that have gone full streaming sites that have been taken off those sites and don’t exist in any form and there’s no control,” Nolan said. “It’s scary for filmmakers who don’t have that release right now. It’s going to be an increasingly big issue for filmmakers, and it’s something that we’re going to have to address with the streamers at some point.”
With Oppenheimer‘s popularity and demand for more physical 4K copies, hopefully it will make studios and retailers think twice on turning their backs fully on the home media format as Nolan points out it is crucial to both the survival of film and a proven revenue retailers can rely on. “It’s an essential revenue stream,” Nolan said. “I mean, Best Buy is certainly carrying this movie, and they’re going to carry on selling the players, so I’m not sure quite what motivated that decision. It doesn’t really make sense, but a lot of economic decisions around home video have always been based on the need to show short-term growth rather than the long-term health of the business.
Written for the screen and directed by Christopher Nolan, OPPENHEIMER, thrusts audiences into the mind of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), whose landmark work as the director of the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos Laboratory created the first atomic bomb.
Starring alongside Cillian Murphy’s titular scientist are Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Benny Safdie, Josh Hartnett, Dane DeHaan, Casey Affleck, Jack Quaid, Matthew Modine, Dylan Arnold, David Krumholtz, Alden Ehrenreich, David Dastmalchian, Olli Haaskivi, Jason Clarke, James D’Arcy, Michael Angarano, Guy Burnet, Danny Deferrari, Matthias Schweighöfer, Gary Oldman, Harrison Gilbertson, Emma Dumont, Devon Bostick, Trond Fausa, Christopher Denham and Josh Zuckerman.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
