As more movies vanish from streaming services, cinephiles are rallying to physical media. Can they save a seemingly dying format?
When a hurricane struck Florida in 2018, Christina’s neighborhood lost electricity, cell service, and internet. For four weeks her family was cut off from the world, their days dictated by the rising and setting sun. But Christina did have a vast collection of movies on DVD and Blu-ray, and a portable player that could be charged from an emergency generator.
Word got around. The family’s library of physical films and books became a kind of currency. Neighbors offered bottled water or jars of peanut butter for access. The 1989 Tom Hanks comedy The ’Burbs was an inexplicably valuable commodity, as were movies that could captivate restless and anxious children.
