When Disney sent their April content list mid-March to the press, people were depressed to see 2 Fridays skipped entirely. “Where are the hundreds upon hundreds of missing films?” they asked. When April 1st rolled around, their “Next on Disney+” video added a considerable amount of content that hadn’t been listed before. The increase was 281.82%!! However, in spite of these new additions, Friday the 15th remained empty.
We’ve witnessed a few discussions about this apparent oversight. Why not move some of the other titles to that day? One theory we’ve heard a few times now is that Disney is skipping the day to recognize Good Friday / Easter weekend.
We sincerely hope this is untrue. Disney is a billion dollar corporation, not a religious institute. Disney has recently been involved in a lot of controversy over their political stances. The last thing we need is for them to take a religious stance. Companies should be secular. If you’re going to not add content because of Easter, then why did you add Soul on Christmas Day? What about Hannukah? Will you withhold titles throughout Lent?
We don’t think they are skipping the day because it’s Good Friday, but as we said, that theory has been passed around by quite a few people.
What Can Disney Do?
Disney, please make this better by actually adding titles on Friday. Okay? Another request.
Please don’t release content lists with empty days. There’s NO REASON for this when so many titles are missing and particularly because simply moving the titles you do have access to around would always cover things. If you see an empty day, the list is not ready to be e-mailed out.
It does remain troubling that hundreds of Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, Made-for-TV, and 20th Century films are missing, yet Fridays tend to be extremely light on content additions. It’s time to buyout the pre-existing deals that are keeping these films and brands from the service. In the UK and other countries they see weekly Touchstone, Fox, and Hollywood Pictures films. This gives their service superior value and a catalog with actual variety.
For now, we expect they’ll just quietly drop more ESPN 30 for 30s. That’s what they’ve done the previous would-be “empty Fridays” they left this year. Don’t let this be the title drop day where nothing arrives. It’s WAY too early in your life for you to be out of content.
What Will We Do?
As always, you can count on us to inform you as soon as we hear they’ve got something coming via our Twitter and our best-in-the-industry resource, the Disney FYI page. We heard a rumor that recent HBO Max departure, Dr. Dolittle Million Dollar Mutts, might arrive, but no official sources corroborate this. You can also keep an eye on the official press site yourself – click here.
Drew Ryan is a film, TV, and Disney geek. He has degrees in English, Student Personnel Administration, and Library & Information Science from Lawrence University, Concordia University-Wisconsin, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Interested in the minutia and licensing of streaming service content, he is always publishing lists, suggestions, and advocating for Disney’s missing library to be added to Disney+. Drew subscribes to Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, and Paramount+. You can find him waxing nostalgic over classic Disney Channel or geeking out over Marvel, CW shows, & Disney on Twitter.
