Christopher Nolan reveals why streaming never fixed ownership gaps, says discs are safer

As Hollywood is slowly phasing out physical media, cinephiles are pointing at Christopher Nolan's quote about discs from November 2023. The British filmmaker spoke out against Hollywood's preference for streaming and its reduction of Blu-ray discs at that time. Nolan made this statement when the IGN reporter bought up the problems of streaming platforms.

The British filmmaker, for his part, backed physical media. Christopher Nolan especially pointed at the one major advantage of discs over streaming: accessibility. The accessibility of movies in streaming, on the other hand, relies heavily on licensing deals. If a streamer doesn't pay for the licensing rights of projects, they will be taken off the platform.

Christopher Nolan explains why discs are safer than streaming:

When asked about his thoughts on movies disappearing from streaming platforms due to licensing issues. For those who don't know, a licensing deal is what allows a streamer to release a studio's project on their platform. For example, the renewal of the Sony-Netflix deal is why Sony franchises like Spider-Man are why the latest entry, Brand New Day, will first stream on the platform.

However, sometimes, licensing deals don't work out, which is why a studio might take projects off a streaming platform, making it inaccessible. This is why Christopher Nolan's statement about physical discs went viral this week, as day by day movies disappear from one streaming platform and drop onto another one. He famously told IGN in November 2023 that physical media was better because no businesses (read: streaming giants) could take a disc away:

“If you buy a 4K UHD, it’s yours. No company is going to break into your house and take it from you and repossess it. It's yours and you own it. That's never really the case with any form of digital distribution."

Nolan is technically right when he said that physical media discs are a one-time purchase. The British filmmaker's endorsement of physical media logically follows his advocacy for 70 mm film.

Moreover, Christopher Nolan also said that streamers never fixed the ownership gap. This became clear in 2025, as a woman sued Amazon last year after the movies she purchased on Prime Video left the platform.

Nolan, in that IGN interview, called physical media an essential revenue stream for up-and-coming filmmakers' movies. His producing partner and wife Emma Thomas also decried the gradual discontinuation of discs. In that interview, Thomas said:

"I think that the slow death of physical media is a terrible thing for consumers. I think it's a terrible thing for filmmakers who want their films to have a life beyond, beyond whatever their initial release is. And I think that all of us should be doing everything that we can to keep it going."

There is another problem with streaming services that the physical media did not have.

The quality of resolution in streaming is also lower than that of physical media:

PlayStation Physical Disc Photo Illustrations - Source: Getty

Viewers have noticed that movies on streaming platforms look strangely flat, an issue that was avoided in physical media. The bitrates for 4K Blu-ray discs are higher than the resolution streaming platforms offer. This is why viewers' scenes set in the dark had more details in the background in 4K discs.

Conversely, streaming platforms alter the resolution of the frames, which is why scenes appear washed out. Nolan has been addressing this issue called "streaming compression" for years, as Hollywood has been phasing out physical media. Lower resolution and the dependence on licensing deals have exposed the problems with streaming.