I thought there was some problem with Netflix over the past several weeks. There were several titles that I put in my queue, and I kept seeing expected Netflix release dates that were about a month later than the advertised DVD/Blu-ray release dates on TV and other websites. So...who was right? Were Netflix's release dates off? Or was there something I was missing...?
I did a little Googling and figured out that earlier this year studios started cracking down on Netflix rentals. In fact, the studios were blaming Netflix for losses in DVD/Blu-ray sales over the past couple of years. Warner Bros. was one of the first to start cracking down, by entering into an agreement with Netflix in which the studio's titles would not be available on Netflix until 4 weeks after the DVD/Blu-rays were made available for sale in stores and online. This explains why Inception, which is getting released on DVD/Blu-ray in stores December 7, is not available on Netflix until "January 2011."
This is interesting, and I'm surprised I didn't hear about it before. I don't think this is the case with every title released, but maybe with the titles that have the best chance of generating DVD sales.
I noticed that Knight & Day was given the same treatment, and that The Pacific is only available on Netflix in DVD (as opposed to Blu-ray). It's a pretty smart plan from the point of view of the studios, but this probably has some movie fans angry.
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