9 Weirdest Ways Films Have Been Released

Some people are just as creative when it comes to releasing a film.

Cloverfield Paradox
Netflix

We all know the standard way films are released: there's a media blitz making sure that every soda can, television show and billboard is letting us know the BIG NEW MOVIE IS COMING OUT. Then it's in theatres for a short while, then you pine after it and eventually it hits whatever VOD services the producers have a deal with, then Blu-Ray and... DVD? Are we still doing DVD?

That's the way it is. You want a copy, you can go on Netflix or Amazon or look through the dollar bins at your local Wal-Mart. Well, mostly, anyway.

Some films aren't released those same ways, though. Some films are released as spectacles, or tossed out in a hurry, or like covert ops, or even never at all...

9. Lion King (And Other Disney Films)

Cloverfield Paradox
Disney

Disney has an odd way of handling its movies. Despite throwing a bunch of marketing behind their characters, having entire parks dedicated to hugging them, and featuring them in video games on phones, playstations and websites, their movies aren't always readily available.

See, Disney has this thing called The Vault or had, anyway. To increase demand for their films, and to constantly re-release movies in new editions that ultra fans will just neeeeeeed to have, the movies are only available to buy for a short amount of time. Then it stops being produced and all of those older copies become collector items, making collector's want to buy the next round more, and on and on and on.

Of course, it's the digital age so things are changing. Now with Disney+ the Disney Vault is finally going away, but for a long time, the way every Disney film was released was one week at a time, then gone for a year, then a new edition is out for a week, and then gone forever. On and on, ad infinitum.

Contributor

Tara Giovannini hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.