Former Netflix stalwart Mike Flanagan said he had a nearly impossible time trying to convince them to put his works on physical media.
Over the years, as streaming services have taken over, we have seen a neglect in interest from studios to release even massive films on physical media. That’s not to say new movies aren’t coming out on DVD and Blu-ray – they are, it’s just that it does make us scratch our heads and wonder why masterpieces like Killers of the Flower Moon and Godzilla Minus One haven’t been given that home video push. We could blame Apple for greed on the former, but the release strategy (for lack of a better term) on the kaiju flick is pretty ridiculous. As we learned just a couple of days ago, Godzilla Minus One instead got a Netflix release far ahead of when we can expect it on Region 1 Blu-ray, a direct insult to physical media lovers. So what is going on and where is the support? As Mike Flanagan – who once had a strong relationship with Netflix before jumping to Amazon – puts it: there is none.
As per President of Physical Media, Flanagan remembered that the streaming service would block any attempts for him to get works like The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass on home video. (Note: it took a year for his debut miniseries to hit DVD/Blu-ray, while Midnight Mass has yet to make it.) “In the years I worked at Netflix, I tried very hard to get them to release my work on blu-ray & DVD. They refused at every turn. It became clear very fast that their only priority was subs, & that they were actively hostile to the idea of physical media.”
Flanagan added, “This is a very dangerous point of view. While companies like Netflix pride themselves on being disruptors, and have proven that they can affect great change in the industry, they sometimes fail to see the difference between disruption and damage. So much that they can find themselves, intentionally or not, doing enormous harm to the very concept of film preservation.”
One can see why Netflix wouldn’t want to actively work on spitting their movies and TV series onto physical media (even though they would obviously be in on the profits) – after all, that’s the industry they wanted to topple. But with so many mainstream titles not available on DVD/Blu-ray and stores continuing to dwindle their stock, Netflix’s brushing off of one of their then-darling was a huge blow and showed they had a point to make.
What do you make of Mike Flanagan’s take on Netflix? Should every movie/TV show have the chance to be on physical media? Chime in with your thoughts below!