Any Spanish collector of films in physical format was already smelling it, but it never hurts to have this sad certainty: the brutal ‘John Wick 4’ is left without a physical edition, since the distributor Diamond Films He has recalled that he does not plan to publish any of his films on DVD, Blu-ray or 4K Ultra HD, justifying this decision with “”.
Demand is very low
The truth is that no Diamond Films film has been published in physical format in our country for a long time, so the only thing we needed was an official explanation from him. We finally got it, and this is what it says:
Since we started our activity in Spain, we are committed to the creation and distribution of DVDs and Blu-Ray. Unfortunately, the company in charge of manufacturing and logistics ceased its activity permanently, due to the low demand for these products, so we had no choice but to stop editing our films in these formats. We understand that there are still some collectors who continued to bet on the physical format and we are very grateful that you are interested in keeping it, but we hope you understand that the demand is so low that its manufacture is not economically viable.
That the physical market in Spain is not going through its best moment is something indisputable. Gone are the years of strength in which there were countless buyers. Many of them were disappearing with the rise of streaming and something tells me that the obsession created around 50% offers, very common a few years ago and rarely seen today, does not help to be profitable either. Now it seems that the only thing that really sells are steelbooks – and I am the first to give them priority over simple editions.
All in all, movies continue to be released in our country and there are distributors like Reel One Entertainment that subsist solely on DVD and Blu-ray sales, so profits should continue to give. Perhaps few and very focused on certain titles –I don’t have the slightest doubt about the good sales of ‘John Wick 4’, but what about the rest of the releases?-, so one can understand that they have opted for other sources of income. Which is it? I suspect that the exclusivity that Diamond Films titles have for a time with Prime Video when they are released on streaming must be more profitable than what they could earn without it and the extra of the physical format.
Obviously, ‘John Wick 4’ is not the only title affected -the same will happen with the recent ‘Talk to me’, the polarizing ‘Beau is afraid’ or the still pending release ‘The last trip of Demeter’-, but surely the most striking. Let’s not forget all the trouble that occurred with the physical format edition of its first installment, which did not appear for sale in our country until this very 2023. By the way, this will also affect future releases, so if ‘John Wick 5’ has just been done, you can count on the same thing to happen.
