As anyone who has watched JFK will attest, Kevin Costner likes a conspiracy theory. So his claim, in an interview promoting his western passion project Horizon: An American Saga , that “DVD is not dead, at all. That’s what they’d have you believe” seems perfectly in character.
But unlike Jim Garrison, the New Orleans district attorney he played in Oliver Stone’s film, the actor may have a point. Costner, being the current King of Dad TV thanks to his hit Paramount series Yellowstone, was thinking of his own audience. “A lot of people that like my movies, they can’t get to a theatre, and they’re waiting for that moment,” he added.
On the face of it, Costner’s statement does appear ludicrous set against Netflix ending its DVD delivery service last autumn. This prompted most people to express surprise that Netflix still had a DVD delivery service. And yet.
.. the DVD format is very far from being for dads only.
In the UK last year, disc sales were worth £170 million ($354m) - including DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD - according to figures from the British Association for Screen Entertainment (Base). While this is not an enormous chunk of the total home entertainment market for the year, totalling £4.43 billion, sales of Blu-ray are actually increasing.
The desire for physical product in the digital age helped fund HMV’s return to its old Oxford Street store last November, after going into administration in 2019. “Physical visual entertainment sales are positive.
