Disney+ Continues to Gut Streaming, Yanks Films Just Weeks After Release

Another Disney movie bites the dust.

Disney, Hulu, Max, and Paramount have all started to remove content from their streaming platforms due to “cost-cutting reasons.” In sad reality, the projects have just underperformed, and the studios are removing them so they can avoid paying streaming residuals.

The topic of streaming residuals is one of the reasons why there’s a massive Hollywood strike right now. The Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) went on strike on May 1 this year and has yet to come to an agreement. Their primary concerns are increased wages/residuals and keeping AI out of writing.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) started negotiations of their own last month with similar complaints. Although they’ve threatened to strike if demands aren’t met, the negotiations have been extended until later this month in an effort to prevent further protest.

Streaming residuals are essentially the money paid to the actors and writers for repeated viewing of their movie or show, which has become a point of contention with studios as streaming has risen over the last several years. In retaliation, studios have started to just pull content off their platforms rather than pay the people who worked on a less-than-successful film.

The latest movie to fall victim is Disney+’s Crater (2023), which starred Mckenna Grace and Kid Cudi. The most shocking thing is that the movie was only recently released on May 12. It didn’t even survive a full two months on Disney+ as it was removed on June 30.

Crater was decently received by critics, mostly being considered “light hearted” and “fun,” and was given an okay scoring by sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. The movie follows in the footsteps of over 30 shows and movies, including Willow, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, and The Mighty Ducks. This has allowed the company to write off $1.5 billion in losses.

As more and more content is released directly to streaming, it’s presenting a major problem as studios find more creative ways to hurt the people that work in the industry while keeping themselves profitable. Crater wasn’t even available for a full two months, and now audiences will never be able to see it unless Disney decides to rerelease it in the future.

What do you think about Disney+ removing more content? Let us know in the comments below!