The Superman Blu-Ray Release Continues The Worst Trend In Home Media (And It's Time To End It)

The physical media industry is not what it once was, but it certainly isn't unhealthy. On the contrary, it's really beginning to thrive again, as more and more lovers of cinema are coming to recognize what a boon it is to have immediate and continual access to one's favorite movies without having to rely on a streaming platform. Although the bonus features that accompany most releases of films on disc were always a bit more niche, appealing more to aspiring artists or rabid fans rather than general audiences, they're now that much more of a draw for a larger portion of people who buy physical media. 

Unfortunately, while boutique labels are still very committed to stacking their releases with extra content, the days of the major studios putting as much effort into their new releases are all but gone. Where, 20-odd years ago, every new release would come stacked with numerous commentary tracks, a making-of doc, deleted scenes, and more, these days we have to be content with perhaps 30 minutes (total!) of bonus material, if that. Although it's true that the heyday of studio DVDs produced just as much pablum as they did meaningful content — no one needs a commentary from a bored cast regurgitating their media-trained canned responses about working on a film for an umpteenth time — the lack of support for most new releases on physical media is still a massive bummer.

Additionally, while movie theaters have been rightfully worried about the shrinking windows between a film's theatrical exhibition and home release, it's been less pointed out how this seems to be making the home releases suffer as well. Rather than hiring a good special features producer like Laurent Bouzereau or Charles de Lauzirika, studios seem too content with throwing together some EPK (electronic press kit) material and calling it a day. There's another trend that rears its ugly head now and again, too: the digital-only bonus feature.

Most of the time, such content is something exclusive but minor: an extra featurette or two, a photo gallery, and so on. Yet studios seem to be increasingly making a point of favoring a digital release over a physical release for the premium bonus features. The latest culprit is Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's release of James Gunn's "Superman," whose full specs were announced today. As they specify, three major bonus features — deleted scenes, a gag reel, and a feature commentary by Gunn — will be included in the digital release only, and will not be on the Blu-Ray nor the 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray. This is an obnoxious practice for several reasons, and it needs to stop.

As people in the know might already realize, "Superman" is only the latest culprit in this trend of allowing digital VOD releases to have more special features. WB has done this several times before, most famously with "The Batman," which made Matt Reeves' commentary an Apple exclusive, and "Barbie," which relegated Greta Gerwig's commentary track to the digital release instead of the 4K Blu-ray. Paramount has also been guilty of this, releasing the 4K Blu-ray of "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One" with a paltry smattering of features (compared to the stacked "Fallout" and the upcoming "The Final Reckoning") but putting more extra content on the digital release. Giving the studios the benefit of the doubt, it feels like this practice of giving more features to digital as an exclusive or an incentive stems from the heyday of physical media, when multiple additional, exclusive bonuses would be spread out over different retailers.

Back in the day, these retailer exclusives used to be pretty substantial; on occasion, it would require the pressing of an entire bonus disc of features. Nowadays, this practice has devolved to being solely about packaging, with Walmart and Amazon (the last two major retailers to even sell physical media at all) selling snazzy, retailer-exclusive Steelbooks. Fostering competition (and tempting collectors) is all well and good in capitalism, but the problem with using extra content as a bargaining chip is that it's far more substantial than a nifty box. While there are indeed those who like to collect movies for the aesthetic, and thus care more about a slipcover than a commentary track, studios need to understand that the majority of folks shelling out money for 4K and Blu-Ray discs are investing in a premium product.

They want it all: the best possible picture, the best sound, the ability to watch the film at will, and as much information about the making of the movie as possible. It makes the purchase feel less valuable to know that there's more content available elsewhere. That's if the purchaser even knows about it, of course. While yes, the majority of disc purchases these days come with a voucher for a free digital copy, none of those aforementioned examples let the consumer know that a more robust extras package was waiting for them on digital. I myself only just learned about Reeves' "The Batman" commentary today, and that's borderline unforgivable.

The deeper and potentially more troubling implications behind this trend concern the ephemeral, more controllable nature of digital versus physical media. As numerous articles comparing the two have pointed out, the trouble with buying any media digitally is that the ownership never truly passes to the consumer; it's always in the hands of the seller. It's for that reason why so many people who buy movies have no interest in purchasing digital copies, as it feels like you're getting little for your dollar. I have no idea what the numbers are for VOD sales; perhaps they're pretty high, as the general consumer finds digital purchases more convenient. I'm sure, however, that these folks have little to no interest in bonus features, and thus the studios are catering to the wrong crowd by providing them with exclusive content.

It's probably not that studios are attempting to entice the VOD fans with bonus features, though. Instead, it's far more likely that they see adding content to a digital file as easier/cheaper than preparing it for release on a disc. A major corporation being lazy and seeing a way to save a buck is nothing new, but it is pretty obnoxious in this case. Blu-Ray discs and especially 4K UHD discs contain a massive amount of space to easily accommodate extra content without sacrificing storage for the feature itself, so there's no reason why they can't contain every feature available. I'm giving studios the benefit of the doubt, but I truly hope that they're not intending on pushing features like commentary tracks and deleted scenes to digital for reasons of content control. There hasn't been an instance where anyone has gotten in major hot water over a commentary track (not even Ben Affleck going off on "Armageddon"), but one wonders if the legal teams at the studios are thinking that having continual access to such material is in their best interests.

In any case, the "Superman" release feels like an insult to those of us fans who pre-ordered Amazon's fancy (and totally sold out) 4K UHD Steelbook the weekend of the film's release, only to find out weeks later that the packaging is mostly what we paid for, and we won't be getting any deleted scenes nor the commentary from the always lively and insightful James Gunn. We didn't even get any type of commentary track for Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" when that film dropped on home media months ago — hell, we barely got an interactive menu. I just pre-ordered the "Weapons" 4K UHD Steelbook over this past weekend; will a similar bait-and-switch happen there, too?

Studios: support your films, celebrate them, and do right by the people who seek to do the same. Otherwise, you're only continuing to shoot cinema in the foot.