James Cameron is helping stem the tide of the reports of physical media's death, Variety reported.

The Avatar director said, “The streamers are denying us any access whatsoever to certain films.” Cameron himself has recently released remastered, 4K physical and streaming versions of his blockbuster hits The Abyss and True Lies.

“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,’” he continued.

Cameron is not the first to say it. Christopher Nolan has advocated owning your own version that you can both put on your shelf and watch on your own at home so “no evil streaming service can come steal it from you.”

James Cameron, Christopher Nolan go old school with owning movie discs

He called, and the public answered. A week after the release of his Oppenheimer Blu-ray edition, Best Buy and Amazon have reportedly sold out of the 4K UHD copies.

Justin LaLiberty of film restoration and distribution company Vinegar Syndrome said, “It's unheard of. In the past decade, I can’t think of another title that caused that type of fervor.”

Nolan is joined by other filmmakers such as Guillermo del Toro and Edgar Wright who champion the return to owning physical copies of movies. However, there is a conflict between a still-robust collector's market and companies going the way of streaming platforms. However, streamers have to contend with a now limited server space.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdowns, streaming platforms seemed to be at an advantage because most people had no choice but to stay home. However, Sony and Oppenheimer distributor Universal as well as their downstream partners Shout! Studios and Arrow Video, said that there was a massive growth in physical disc sales.

Arrow's Dean Lawson stated that in the U.S. alone, their sales grew 72% in 2020 and 2021. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment president Michael Bonner assured consumers that physical media buyers are still very important to the company.

“There is a meaningful number of consumers who remain committed to physical discs and presents a real opportunity for us to maintain engagement in the category,” he stated.

However, the overall consumption of physical media has declined yearly. Statista Consumer Insights said that the number of people who watch movies on DVD or Blu-rays in a year declined to 30% from 49%.

Shout's SVP of sales John Rotella said that some of these losses are due to the changing strategies of retailers such as Best Buy, Target and Walmart.

“They’ve removed front- of-store end caps. Target has this four-sided, lighted fixture, and they went to three sides dedicated to vinyl. You are fighting a decline in space,” he said.

In 2021, brick-and-mortar stores were 80% of Arrow's sales. Last year, that went down to 65% physical stores, 35% online. Best Buy also recently confirmed that  they will stop selling physical discs from their online and physical stores in 2024.

Expanding the 4K market is one way to prevent sales numbers from falling further. Oppenheimer's 4K discs make up 40% of the film's physical sales, which is an industry record. Arrow and Criterion have now started offering limited-edition, retailer-exclusive packaging as well as deluxe releases filled with bonus content. This is akin to what the vinyl industry is doing, what was once considered “dead” is not making a big comeback.

This year marks Cameron's Titanic's 25th anniversary. Next year, The Godfather Part II will turn 50 and Pulp Fiction will be 30 years old. Paramount Worldwide Home Entertainment president Bob Buchi said that he believes consumers still want to be able to hold a physical copy of their favorite movies.

“We believe there’s still a place for physical media and there's a lot of fans out there that appreciate it for all that it has to offer,” he said.

For what it's worth, with streaming services removing movies from their platforms, owning physical discs ensure that one will always have one's favorite/comfort film on hand.