Disney Plus has been enjoying its highly despised purge of movies and shows for quite some time now. And while Willow getting axed and dumped after a few months still ails many, the blockbuster sci-fi Crater has also been given the boot, that too just seven weeks post its debut on the platform. What is the logic here?
Crater landed on Disney Plus on May 12 and took quite some time to generate whispers of its presence that soon ascended to praise for its storyline, star cast, and its ability to leave anyone fighting the losing battle of holding back tears. The blame for its delayed discovery rests on Disney, which completely avoided promoting the film contrary to its usual tactics of over-hyping its projects.
But despite the oversight, Crater emerged as a winner as the online chatter about the film was majorly focused on its merits or why Disney avoided hyping a project that truly deserved all the promotion. Crater remained a topic of discussion, with anyone rarely having a negative review to add to its growing pile of positive ones.
And yet, seven weeks after its release, the original Disney Plus film has been purged from the platform, globally.
The reason behind Disney Plus removing Crater
There is no reason, well, no new reason behind Disney’s widely detested decision.
It was previously announced that based on the company’s latest quarterly financial results, it was finalized that some selected movies and shows will be removed from its streaming platforms to better embrace its new strategies in content curation and to aim for a more profitable future where they will churning less content, but focus on making what gets them more subscribers.
Entertainment journalist Matthew Belloni actually explained it perfectly in a Puck newsletter, underlining why Disney is mercilessly removing its titles.
“The mechanics are interesting here. First, many seem to think that artist residuals are the cause of the purge. Not really. Residuals make up a real but relatively small part of the cost of putting shows and movies on streamers. Such a small part, in fact, that the Writers Guild is on strike to improve them.
The major costs here are the license fees that must be paid by the distributor (Disney+ or Hulu, in this case) to the owner of the content. We may think of these shows as just sitting on a service, waiting to be discovered at 3 a.m. by your stoned cousin. But sitting on a streamer is the same thing, from a licensing perspective, as if the show were being syndicated on TBS or sold into a foreign territory. Disney+ is an exhibition, and fees must be paid. That’s the case even if the owner of the content is also Disney (or an affiliate), which must at least pretend to engage in an arms-length transaction.”
So, technically, Disney observes which titles are being watched, figures out the ones that aren’t, and decides to write them off to cut future costs by keeping them in its library as they are now justified as losses when it comes to paying taxes, thus significantly decreasing the residual payments.
But even by that logic, aren’t the low viewership numbers attracted by Crater because of Disney not promoting it and barely publicizing it the way it flaunts its other titles? On the off chance that we do forget Disney not doing right by its creation, doesn’t the film deserve to remain on the streamer a little longer to actually back the justification of low traffic? For what it’s worth, Disney Plus subscribers are not taking this latest betrayal well.
Where to watch Crater now that Disney Plus has deleted it?
As Crater was exclusively released on Disney Plus, like the many formerly purged titles, it is not available on physical media or for purchase online. But streamers dropping its original content is nothing new — though it is definitely become the staple of the current decade — and purged titles have sometimes found life elsewhere like HBO sold Westworld, which now resides at Tubi.
But yes, until Disney decides to shop Crater around, it is not available to legally watch anywhere.