Netflix DVDs-by-mail was peak home entertainment

In hindsight, consumers never had it so good with home entertainment than with Netflix’s DVDs-by-mail service.
As soon as theatrical movies were available for home video release, Netflix subscribers could get them via the U.S. Postal Service in short order.
In 2000, Netflix began offering unlimited rentals and no late fees for a monthly fee of $19.95 and users could have four discs out at a time. Whenever subscribers returned a disc, they received the next title in their queue. Netflix added high-definition Blu-ray discs to the DVD library in 2006.
The popularity of Netflix’s service eventually drove out of business home video rental stores such as Blockbuster.
Netflix had every major release and practically every film you could think of in its catalog of DVD and Blu-ray disc movies and TV series.
When the company added streaming video titles to its service as a free added perk in 2007, it spelled the beginning of the end for physical disc rentals.
In November 2010, Netflix introduced a “streaming-only” subscription service plan. The popularity of that service and its expanding content selection, including exclusive originals, led the way for Netflix to end its discs-by-mail service on Sept. 29, 2023.
Netflix in its disc-rental days was the Library of Alexandria for movies and TV series because its catalog was so extensive. But that nirvana is gone.
Now, if you want to watch a particular movie, you must search for it across multiple streaming services – Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock and more.
The company that is best positioned to serve this new world is probably Amazon. Because if you can’t find a certain theatrical release on its streaming service, it likely is available on Amazon for pay-per-view. That’ll cost you more, but at least it’s all in one place.

Shark-attack movies are getting more ridiculous

It wouldn’t be summer cinema without shark-attack movies. But some of the new movies are playing more for laughs than scares.
“Water Park Shark” is a B-movie horror comedy from Anthony C. Ferrante – the director behind the famously ridiculous “Sharknado” franchise. The plot involves great white sharks breaching a water park in Cape Cod, Mass. It’s due out on July 3 on Amazon Prime Video.
“Sorority Shark Attack” reportedly is set for a streaming video release later this year. It features Robert Carradine (“Revenge of the Nerds”) in one of his final film roles before his death in February.
“Thrash,” which premiered April 10 on Netflix, also generated as many laughs as scares. The plot has a pack of hungry bull sharks invading a flooded coastal town in South Carolina during a hurricane. To make matters worse, the initial storm surge breaks open a massive commercial tanker truck carrying animal blood.
Here’s the plot of “Chum,” released on June 5: “A newlywed couple joins friends on a Mediterranean yacht excursion, only to find themselves caught between a predatory shark and a psychopathic killer in their midst – transforming a sun-drenched escape into a fight for survival.”
“Chum,” starring Alice Eve, received terrible reviews.
Another recent shark-attack movie was “Deep Water,” starring Aaron Eckhart. It involves an international flight that crashes in the Pacific Ocean, and the passengers and crew must work to survive a group of circling sharks. Released on May 1, the film received mildly positive reviews from critics.
Coming soon are “The Devil’s Mouth” and “The Bay,” both of which feature sharks attacking tourists in Thailand.
“The Devil’s Mouth” stars Kathryn Newton and Lana Condor and is set for release on Amazon Prime Video on July 29.
“The Bay” stars Francesca Eastwood and is due for release on July 17 in select theaters and on digital video on demand.
Next year will seen the release on Netflix of “Under Paris 2,” the sequel to “Under Paris” (2024), which featured a giant shark in the Seine. Yeah, totally believable.

Kylie Minogue should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Netflix documentary series “Kylie” provides compelling evidence that Australian pop music superstar Kylie Minogue needs to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The fact that she has never been nominated is a disgrace. The longevity of her career, her reinventions, her chart-topping hits and sold-out concerts to this day are all factors in her favor. The three-part Netflix series also shows the personal and professional challenges she has faced and overcome.
Australia has been a noticeable blind spot for the Rock Hall. The only Aussie acts in the hall are AC/DC and the Bee Gees.
Aussie snubs include Minogue, INXS (nominated for the first time this year), Midnight Oil, Crowded House and Nick Cave.
Next year would be a perfect time to induct Minogue as she reportedly will be on another world tour.
Kylie is an icon who deserves to be in the Rock Hall before a raft of other female solo artists.
The 2026 Netflix docuseries “Kylie” and concert film from her Tension tour “Kylie: Tension Tour Live” hopefully will give Minogue an exposure lift to hall voters.
Put her name on the nomination ballot and she will lead the fan poll. I’m sure of it.

Related articles:

Kylie Minogue and the Art of Staying a Mega-Famous Pop Star Forever (Rolling Stone; June 5, 2026)

Kylie Minogue Confirms 40th Anniversary Tour Plans: ‘I’m Probably Not Meant to Say This, But Yes’ (Billboard; May 17, 2026)

Photos: “Kylie” docuseries poster and photos from the premiere. (Netflix)

Post-apocalyptic TV series alive and well

To date, there have been 91 post-apocalyptic TV series and miniseries. Of those, nine are still in production.
This year brought “The Eternaut” on Netflix and “Pluribus” on Apple TV.
“The Eternaut” from Argentina takes place after a mysterious snowfall kills most of the population. It turns out to be the first wave of an attack by extraterrestrial invaders.
“Pluribus” is set after an alien virus transforms most of humanity into a peaceful and content hive mind that nevertheless seeks to assimilate those with immunity.
Meanwhile, the second season of “Fallout” will premiere on Dec. 17 on Amazon Prime Video. It has been renewed for a third season and its creators think it could last five or six seasons.

Related article:

Comprehensive list of live-action post-apocalyptic TV series (Updated Dec. 14, 2025)

Netflix House first impressions: It could work.

I was skeptical when I learned that Netflix was planning to open physical attractions in shopping malls. But after visiting the internet television network’s first Netflix House last week in suburban Philadelphia, it changed my mind. I now think it could work.
Netflix House Philadelphia is located in a former Lord & Taylor department store in King of Prussia, Pa. The store had been vacant since 2021. It is free to enter and explore the gift shop, dine at the Netflix Bites restaurant, and to take selfies in Netflix photo op areas.
It also has premium immersive experiences and games based on Netflix shows like “Wednesday” and “Stranger Things.” They range from escape-room adventures and virtual reality sessions to mini-golf. I can see those as popular for birthday parties and corporate team building. Plus, it has a 229-seat movie theater for special screenings and events.
Netflix is planning to open three such attractions. The second Netflix House will open Dec. 11 in Dallas. A third will follow in 2027 in Las Vegas.
Netflix House Dallas will be located in a former Belk department store, which closed in 2020.
Given the tough retail climate today, there are many such vacant spaces in shopping malls nationwide. The mall owners likely gave Netflix a sweet deal to take over the space, both of which span 100,000 square feet over two floors.
Still, are these facilities part of Netflix’s marketing and promotions budget or does the company see them becoming a Dave & Buster’s-like franchise?
These attractions aren’t cheap to create and operate, so we shall see how the public responds. I think the locals will give them a try initially, but their staying power is an open question.

Photos: Netflix House Philadelphia in King of Prussia, Pa. (Netflix)

Note to Netflix: Keep the binge-watching option

One of the key innovations that Netflix introduced was “binge watching,” the ability to stream multiple episodes of a new TV show in one sitting. It replaced the legacy broadcast and cable TV model of releasing one new episode every week.
While some people might tolerate or even approve of the old model, I do not. Proponents of the traditional model say it allows a show to build buzz and anticipation for upcoming episodes. But with so many programming options out there, it’s easy to lose track of shows on a weekly release. I need a recap video to watch even new seasons of many shows.
Binge watching gives viewers the option of watching one or more episodes to satisfy their demand. It puts them in control. Weekly episode releases give all the control to the programmer and it seems stingy by today’s standards.
When services such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+ and HBO Max release a new series that I’m interested in, I’ll mark my calendar for when the full season will be available.
My suggestion to those services is to switch to the user-friendly binge-watching model and drop the old-school weekly release model.
According to a survey by Hub Entertainment Research, 64% of viewers prefer all episodes of a series to be released at once as opposed to one episode per week (36%).

Photo: Season five of the Apple TV+ series “Slow Horses” premiered on Sept. 24, 2025. But all six episodes won’t be available until Oct. 29. (Apple TV+)

Streaming video services killed traditional TV seasons

I used to look forward to the TV Guide Fall Preview issue. It would get me excited for new TV series that would be premiering in the fall. Now you can hardly find that magazine issue on newsstands.
TV Guide was dominant before the internet when broadcast and cable TV were popular. Back then, new television shows premiered mostly in the fall when people spent more time inside because of the colder weather. Networks used that as an excuse to create an advertising sales event.
Now with streaming video services, new shows are premiering year-round. And many of those services are commercial-free. So they’re producing a steady stream of content to keep subscribers engaged.
The fall TV season still exists though it’s not as big a deal as it used to be.
Here are new and returning shows I’m most interested seeing in this autumn: “Alice in Borderland” (Netflix), “Alien: Earth” (Hulu), Pluribus (Apple TV+), “Slow Horses” (Apple TV+), “Stranger Things” (Netflix), “The Beast in Me” (Netflix), “The Diplomat” (Netflix) and “The Last Frontier” (Apple TV+).

Related articles:

The Complete Guide to Fall TV 2025: Everything to Know About What to Watch This Season (TV Guide; Sept. 29, 2025)

Fall TV Preview: 56 of the Most-Anticipated New and Returning Shows of 2025 (Variety; Sept. 4, 2025)

The news media oversimplifies business competition

In trying to capture the attention of readers, the news media often oversimplifies the nature of business competition as one of winners and losers.
I’ll admit to doing this as well. But as a stock-focused technology business writer, it’s easier for me to point to companies doing well on the market and compare them to those that aren’t.
In a recent interview, streaming media industry analyst and consultant Dan Rayburn told me that he doesn’t like the popular phrase “streaming video war,” much less crowning Netflix the “winner.”
“As a soldier, someone still tied to the military, war is not good,” he said. “But what we have amongst all these streamers is competition. Competition is great.”
He added, “The media uses that (phrase) because it makes it sound worse than it is. It’s not a war – it’s competition. Competition breeds great things for consumers.”
And further, Netflix is not the only winner. It may have the largest global subscriber base, but others have been successful in the market. He pointed to Alphabet’s YouTube as another highly successful video streamer, one which takes a different approach to the market with ad-supported videos.
On May 9, AMD Chief Executive Lisa Su spoke to students, faculty and guests at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. She was asked about her company’s competition with Nvidia.
“I don’t view these things as zero-sum games,” she said. “The media tends to want to make these very critique conversations. It’s AMD vs. Intel or it’s Nvidia vs. AMD.”
“I don’t think we should think about it that way,” she said. “We should think about things as: the world needs more compute … And there are very few companies that build compute.”
Wise words.

Photo: AMD Chief Executive Lisa Su speaks at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., on May 9, 2025. She was interviewed by RPI President Martin Schmidt at the President’s Commencement Colloquy. (Patrick Seitz)

Post-apocalyptic TV shows get refresh with ‘Fallout’

While it’s been slim pickings for post-apocalyptic movies, TV series in the genre have been plentiful.
Current series getting new seasons include “Invasion” (Apple TV+), “Silo” (Apple TV+), “Twisted Metal” (Peacock) and “The Last of Us” (Max). There also are at least two “Walking Dead” franchise series developing new episodes (“Dead City” and “Daryl Dixon”). Plus, “Snowpiercer” has jumped to AMC from TNT for its fourth and final season.
Today saw the premiere of “Fallout” on Amazon Prime Video. The adaptation of the popular video game series released all eight episodes at once. The series is set 219 years after the outbreak of nuclear war sent Americans underground into fallout shelters called Vaults.
Last week, Netflix premiered the South Korean series “Parasyte: The Grey.” The alien-invasion horror series is more pre-apocalyptic, but the outlook looks pretty grim.
But with the era of peak TV at an end, the plentiful genre offerings could be slowing down.
The number of scripted TV seasons being ordered in the U.S. has nearly halved since 2019, according to Ampere Analysis. However, international TV production could pick up the slack, Deadline reported.

The end of movies on disc is nigh

Netflix ending its DVD-by-mail service last month was just the latest sign that movies on physical media are going away. And with it goes consumer ownership of physical copies of their favorite movies and TV series.
Going forward, consumers will be left to the whims of streaming video services to decide which movies to carry. Or they’ll be forced to pay for a digital rental or purchase of a movie title, if it’s even available.
Last week, director Christopher Nolan encouraged movie fans to buy a copy of his film “Oppenheimer” on Blu-ray Disc “so no evil streaming service can come steal it from you.” (See articles by Variety and IndieWire.)
In addition to Netflix getting out of the DVD business, there have been other signs that the medium has reached its end game.
Retailer Best Buy plans to phase out sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs both in-store and online in early 2024. It wants to use that space for other merchandise. (See articles by Variety and Media Play News.) Other retailers like Walmart and Target also are cutting back on their DVD offerings.
Also, Ingram Entertainment, a leading DVD distributor, announced that it is winding down operations after more than 35 years in business.
The DVD market has been waning for years as consumers have switched to streaming video services for entertainment. But the decline has accelerated recently.
Media pundits have noted that many movies and TV series that were released on DVD are now difficult or impossible to find in any digital format. And that’s a shame for the movie fans and culture as a whole.

Related articles:

Why the Dying DVD Business Could Be Headed for a Resurrection (The Hollywood Reporter; Nov. 10, 2023)

‘Crossroads,’ Britney Spears and the Journey to Watch a DVD in 2023 (New York Times; Oct. 18, 2023)

Where’s the Love? — Is Hollywood Abandoning Disc, Once its Golden Goose, Too Fast? (Media Play News; Sept. 25, 2023)

The DVD’s Demise Leaves Many Films Gone With the Wind (Wall Street Journal; April 27, 2023)

For movie lovers, there’s a darker side to Netflix ending DVD rentals (Washington Post; April 21, 2023)

Photo: DVD collection (Dave Campbell via Creative Commons)

Netflix destroyed most of its DVD collection

Netflix officially shut down its DVD.com business last month after collecting the last of its discs by mail on Oct. 27. So what happened to the thousands of movies and TV series on disc in its collection?
“As we’ve done over the last 25 years, we’ll be recycling the majority of our DVDs through third-party companies that specialize in recycling digital and electronic media,” a Netflix spokesperson said. “We’re also donating a portion of our inventory to organizations focused on film and media.”
Those organizations included the NYU Tisch School of the Arts and the USC Cinematic Arts Library. But those colleges didn’t get many discs.
“We were offered some DVDs from Netflix but most were duplicates of what we already owned so we selected about 50 of them for our collection,” Steve Hanson, associate professor and head of the Cinematic Arts Library said.
The DVDs it got from Netflix were a “mixed bag” ranging from comedy, drama and horror to international. Some titles included “Baby Driver,” “Living,” “Monsters University,” “Mother!,” “Overlord” and “The Banshees of Inisherin.”
Jeremy Schug, senior director of communications and digital strategy, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, said Tisch received a small selection of DVDs as a donation. He didn’t have any details on titles or genres.
“We understand that the majority of Netflix’s DVD inventory was recycled,” Schug said.
DVDs, Blu-ray Discs and CDs can be recycled for their polycarbonate plastic. Recycling firms shred the discs and use specialized equipment to remove the ink, lacquer and reflective metal layers to get the polycarbonate resin, which can be sold to make new items.
In the third quarter, its last quarter of operation, Netflix’s DVD-by-mail business generated $22 million in revenue, down 37% year over year. Netflix announced the coming end of its DVD business last April.

Related article:

Ted Sarandos Lauds Netflix’s Final DVD Rental Shipment (Media Play News; Sept. 29, 2023)

Photos: Netflix billboard and goodbye message to customers (Netflix)

Shirley Temple movies are missing or hard to find online

I took an interest in child actress Shirley Temple recently after receiving an antique doll in her likeness. Despite being a movie fan, I had never seen any of her movies.
Fortunately, before Netflix’s DVD service ended last month, I rented two of her movies “Wee Willie Winkie” (1937) and “The Little Princess” (1939). The DVD service had listed 10 of her movies in its inventory.
Temple appeared in 44 feature-length motion pictures from 1932 through 1949, according to Wikipedia. Of those, 13 are not available in any form online, either from streaming services or for digital rental or purchase, according to JustWatch and Reelgood.
Also, 19 of the Shirley Temple movies are only available for digital rental or purchase.
The remaining 12 movies are available for streaming from mostly smaller subscription video services such as Indieflix and Flixfling.
She also made numerous short films, including a series of Baby Burlesks. I don’t know the status of their availability.

Photo: Movie poster for “The Little Princess” (1939).

Netflix DVD service, you will be missed

On Friday, Sept. 29, Netflix will mail out its final DVDs to subscribers. It will mark the end of company’s legacy DVD-by-mail service, which started some 25 years ago. And I will be sad to see it go.
I have subscribed to the DVD service continually since March 2001. In that time, I’ve watched about 1,660 discs, including movies, TV series and documentaries. That’s a lot of discs.
The end has been coming for a while. Consumers clearly prefer the immediacy of streaming video, whether that’s subscription video on demand or transactional video on demand.
The beauty of the Netflix DVD service was that it carried virtually every theatrical Hollywood release in one place. Now, you have to use a service like Reelgood or JustWatch to find out where to access a particular movie online, if it’s even available.
Netflix’s DVD.com also offered many movies, particularly older titles, that weren’t available for streaming anywhere.
My movie watching now is split across Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Kanopy, Max and Netflix. In the future, I’ll likely switch off with other services such as Hulu, Paramount+ and Peacock. There also are niche services I’d like to try such as horror movie specialist Shudder.
I have a watch list on Reelgood to keep track of all the movies I’d like to see. Reelgood lists where those movies are available to stream, if they’re available.
I’ll miss the little thrill of finding Netflix DVDs in my mailbox every week.
However, I may try another DVD rental service. But those offerings seem limited. Video game rental service GameFly has a movie rental service offering DVD and Blu-ray Disc titles. There’s also 3D Blu-ray Rental, 4K Blu-Ray 4U and Scarecrow Video.
Plus, there’s Redbox and its video rental kiosks. But those machines are getting harder to find in my area.

Related articles:

Netflix Prepares to Send Its Final Red Envelope (The New York Times; Sept. 23, 2023)

Netflix is shutting down its DVD service this week. (Trung Phan; Sept. 25, 2023)

The high tech behind Netflix’s old-school DVD service (The Verge; Sept. 25, 2023)

Redbox to Increase Catalog, Niche Titles in Kiosks as Netflix Exits Disc Biz (Media Play News; Sept. 26, 2023)

Photos: My last few Netflix DVDs (Patrick Seitz)

End of the line in sight for Netflix DVD business

Netflix is preparing to shut down its DVD-by-mail rental service. The streaming video leader announced the end of the 25-year-old business on April 18. It plans to send out its final DVDs to customers on Sept. 29.
One unanswered question was how long the service would keep adding new releases to its inventory. Now, the answer to that question is becoming clear.
The company recently purged its database of almost all unavailable titles, including placeholders for many movies that have not yet been released.
Netflix’s DVD.com is now offering new films such as “Renfield” (released June 6), “John Wick: Chapter 4” (June 13), “The Pope’s Exorcist” (June 13) and “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” (June 20).
However, Netflix’s DVD listings don’t include upcoming titles like “Evil Dead Rise” (June 27), “Scream 6” (July 11) and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Aug. 1).
However, it does list as coming soon “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” (July 11) and “Fast X” (Aug. 8). I suspect those releases are not guaranteed.
It’s safe to say that DVD.com is all but finished buying new discs for its inventory.
As for me, I’ve got 34 titles in my queue to watch in the next three months. Of those, 20 movies are not available on any of the streaming services to which I subscribe. Some are only available for online rental or purchase. And three are not available anywhere online in any form.

Photo: Netflix DVDs (Netflix)

Reelgood is a great website, but here’s an improvement I’d like to see

My favorite website for locating movies and TV shows I want to stream online is Reelgood.
I use it mostly to keep track of films and TV series I’m interested in watching. Reelgood tells me if the content is available on my subscription services, free services or elsewhere.
I have set up watch lists on the service for movies I want to see and TV shows I’m tracking.
I also can mark which movies I’ve seen and which episodes of TV series that I’ve seen. This is important. Because when you’ve seen as many films as I have, you sometimes forget if you’ve seen a particular movie.
I can name two movies that I’ve sat all the way through in the last year or so, not fully realizing that I had already seen them. They were familiar, yes, but I had to check my viewed lists on separate services to confirm. (By the way, those movies were “The Reef” (2010) and “A Walk Among the Tombstones” (2014).)
Unfortunately my viewing lists are spread out across numerous services. I would love to see Reelgood find a way to import those lists into its database. I can envision Reelgood users opting in to have their viewing lists and ratings imported.
Reelgood could start with Netflix’s DVD-by-mail service, DVD.com, which is ending its 25-year run in September. Netflix currently is allowing members to download their DVD rental history and ratings in a “personalized PDF.”
That data is not that useful sitting in a static PDF document. It would have much more utility if added to the Reelgood database.
If that’s successful, Reelgood could move on to other services such as Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and Rotten Tomatoes.
Come on, Reelgood. What do you say?

Photo: Promotional art for Reelgood’s AI assistant. (Reelgood)

GameFly, Redbox ready to carry the DVD flag after Netflix surrenders

When Netflix announced an end to its DVD-by-mail service, most media reports mentioned Redbox as a beneficiary. But what about GameFly?
Redbox is a much larger operation, offering more than 34,000 self-service DVD rental kiosks nationwide. Its kiosks offer a great option for people who live near them. But for people who prefer a DVD-by-mail service, GameFly offers an alternative.
GameFly is primarily a video game rental service but also offers movies by mail. It has two plans for DVDs and Blu-ray Discs: one disc at a time for $8.95 per month and two discs at a time for $13.95 per month. It also offers 4K Ultra High Definition disc plans, with one disc at a time for $13.95 per month and two discs at a time for $18.95 per month.
GameFly’s website lists 2,300 discs available for rental, mostly major Hollywood releases.
GameFly has touted its movie service on social media since Netflix’s announcement. But I wonder if they’re planning any other initiatives to capture some of the Netflix DVD subscribers who will be displaced this fall?
We’ll see.

Related articles:

Unanswered questions as Netflix ends DVD-by-mail rental business (April 22, 2023)

When will Netflix stop adding new releases to its DVD inventory? (April 30, 2023)

When will Netflix stop adding new releases to its DVD inventory?

Netflix’s DVD-by-mail rental service will send out its final discs to customers on Friday Sept. 29. But I wonder how long the service will keep adding new release movies to its inventory.
For now, the service is adding current theatrical films to its listed movies. For instance, it has put recently released movies like “Evil Dead Rise” and “The Covenant” in its listings. It also is adding upcoming releases like “Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3.” But whether it buys copies of those movies isn’t guaranteed.
Between now and the end of September, I’m going to burn through my rental queue on DVD.com. My queue currently has 40 titles. That doesn’t include new releases that will occur between now and then.
A good number of those movies aren’t available from any subscription streaming services, but only can be rented or purchased digitally.
Others like “The King and I” (1956), “The Killers” (1964) and “White Dog” (1982) aren’t available online in any form.
Netflix DVDs were always a good hedge against the spotty availability of movies on streaming services. But now that option is going away.
You can’t blame Netflix for ending its DVD service. People prefer the immediacy of streaming to having to manage physical media. And movie studios are releasing fewer movies on disc now.
My Netflix “saved” queue of movies that currently are not available on disc includes 68 titles. Some are older catalog movies that are out of print, but many are independent and foreign films that are bypassing physical media entirely.
Over the next six months, it will be interesting to see which new-release DVDs Netflix adds to its library.
My guess is that it will add only the big Hollywood releases. And in limited quantities at that.

Photo: Netflix envelope by Marit and Toomas Hinnosaar (via Creative Commons).

Unanswered questions as Netflix ends DVD-by-mail rental business

Internet television network Netflix announced April 18 that it will end its U.S.-only DVD-by-mail rental service this fall. But the announcement left subscribers and industry watchers with a few unanswered questions.
Netflix’s decision to end its legacy service after 25 years was not surprising, given the company’s focus on streaming video. Since its pivot to online video, Netflix has done no promotion of its DVD service, other than through a modest social media presence.
Netflix declined to say how many subscribers the DVD service now has. Estimates put the subscriber count at roughly 1 million.
Last year, the DVD business generated $145.7 million in revenue, or less than half of 1% of Netflix’s total revenue. It was literally a rounding error for the company.
Faced with a declining user base and diminished economics, Netflix figured the time was right to pull the plug. (Also, Netflix co-founder and longtime chief executive Reed Hastings stepped down as co-CEO in January. His successors were likely less emotionally attached to the legacy business.)
But what’s going to happen to its inventory of thousands of movies and episodic TV series on DVD and high-definition Blu-ray Disc? Netflix won’t say.
The parent company of Redbox, operators of DVD rental kiosks, reportedly tried to buy Netflix’s DVD operations several times but its offers were ignored.
I suspect that Netflix didn’t want to sell the business to a competitor, which might be able to revitalize it through marketing and promotion.
My hope is that Netflix doesn’t trash of its inventory of DVDs. That would be environmentally negative. They could auction off the movies (to Redbox, GameFly or others) or even donate the movies to a library. They still have value.
Netflix will ship its final discs to subscribers on Sept. 29. It will continue to accept returns until Oct. 27, the company said.

Related articles:

Why Netflix Hit Eject on DVDs (The Wall Street Journal; April 21, 2023)

Netflix Is Mailing Its Last DVD. The Die-Hards Are in Mourning. (The Wall Street Journal; April 20, 2023)

No Room for Nostalgia: Netflix Ejects DVD Business (Statista; April 20, 2023)

Redbox Owner Interested in Buying Netflix’s DVD Business (The Hollywood Reporter; April 19, 2023)

By Killing DVD Rentals, Netflix Is Sending an Elitist Message to Middle America (Media Play News; April 19, 2023)

True-story business movies are hot as Hollywood tells the tales of Nike, Tetris, BlackBerry and Flamin' Hot Cheetos

Movies based on true stories in business are having a moment.
Last year saw docu-drama miniseries based on business failures Theranos and WeWork and the founding of Uber. The year ended with Netflix miniseries “The Playlist” on the creation of streaming music service Spotify.
At least six movies are due out this year based on true stories about businesses.
Up first is “Tetris,” premiering March 31 on Apple TV+. The movie, starring Taron Egerton, is about the struggle to obtain international distribution rights for the Russian video game of the same name.
Next is “Air” about Nike’s efforts to sign basketball rookie Michael Jordan to a deal to wear its sneakers. The movie, directed by Ben Affleck, will premiere in theaters on April 5, followed sometime later on streaming service Amazon Prime Video.
“BlackBerry,” a movie about the making of the BlackBerry brand of mobile phones, will premiere in theaters on May 12. It stars Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton.
Next, “Flamin’ Hot” will premiere June 9 on Hulu and Disney+ streaming services. The film tells the story of Richard Montañez, the Frito-Lay janitor who claimed to have invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
Then on July 12, select theaters will show the true-life dramedy “The Beanie Bubble,” starring Zach Galifianakis and Elizabeth Banks. The movie, about the 1990s Beanie Baby toy craze, will premiere on Apple TV+ on July 28.
Finally, director Michael Mann is making a biopic about Italian driver and entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari. The movie, “Ferrari,” is slated to premiere later this year.

Netflix DVD business continues steady decline

Netflix’s legacy DVD-by-mail rental business saw sales decline 20% in 2022 to $146 million. That’s slightly faster than the 19% sales declines it posted in 2021 and 2020.
The slow death of the company’s U.S.-only DVD business is not a surprise given that Netflix doesn’t promote the service. It merits just three quick mentions in the company’s annual report, filed Jan. 26 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Netflix’s DVD business is still important for movie lovers such as me. Some older movies are not available for streaming online from Netflix or elsewhere.
I recently watched the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “South Pacific” (1958) on Netflix DVD because the film isn’t available on subscription streaming services. It is available for online rental for $4, but those purchases add up.
Still, it’s only a matter of time before the Netflix DVD business closes shop. Fewer new movies are being released on DVD and older titles aren’t being reissued.

Photo: “South Pacific” (1958) on Netflix DVD (Patrick Seitz)