James Cameron’s New War of Words Against Streaming Giants, He is Actually Right This Time
The war between streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video and HBO Max against physical CDs and movie theaters is far reaching. The pandemic changed the way mass audiences consume content and gave rise to OTT platforms that offer a flexible viewing experience anytime we want. Renowned filmmakers like James Cameron and Christopher Nolan have a lot to say about this situation.
James Cameron Believes In Physical Copies of Movies
While streaming movies online offers flexibility of when to watch and how to watch, it restricts users on what to watch. A large number of movies are not available on the platforms and hence viewers remain aloof of some of the greatest works of cinema. This infuriates filmmakers who want their work to reach every corner of the world.
James Cameron says “the streamers are denying us any access whatsoever to certain films.”
“I think people are responding with their natural reaction, which is ‘I’m going to buy it, and I’m going to watch it any time I want.’”
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Between the actors’ strike days, many filmmakers remastered their old classics to entertain the public again since the guild members couldn’t work on new projects. James Cameron remastered The Abyss and True Lies to fit the streaming specifications. In a conversation with Variety, he said,
“The streamers are denying us any access whatsoever to certain films. And I think people are responding with their natural reaction, which is ‘I’m going to buy it, and I’m going to watch it any time I want.’”
Other filmmakers like Christopher Nolan agree and want physical copies of their movies to remain on shelves for longer so that the discerning public and purchase it whenever they wish to. Guillermo del Toro and Edgar Wright are also in support of saving the original format of films and letting viewers get a taste of owning a disc of their favorite movies.
What Do Distributors Say?
After record-breaking sales of Oppenheimer discs and Blu-Ray copies, this conversation becomes even more pertinent. Justin LaLiberty, director of operations for Vinegar Syndrome, a film restoration and distribution company expressed his views on the Oppenheimer sales,
“It’s unheard of. In the past decade, I can’t think of another title that caused that type of fervor.”
Bob Buchi, Paramount’s president of Worldwide Home Entertainment, is calm in his approach as he believes the physical industry is not going anywhere. He said,
“We believe there’s still a place for physical media,” Buchi says, “and there’s a lot of fans out there that appreciate it for all that it has to offer.”
Universal and Arrow Videos both showed an increase in the sales of physical copies of movies despite the pandemic. This proves there’s still a chunk of the public who appreciate movies in the original format and want to collect physical discs rather than depending on OTT platforms.
