Amazon removes Disney movie pre-orders in latest stage in contractual spat
Amazon has stepped up a contract conflict with Disney by removing the pre-order feature for physical disk copies of films including ‘Muppets Most Wanted,’ ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ and ‘Maleficent’.
The move will bite into Disney's movie sale revenue
On the US Amazon website the titles are accompanied by a message which reads: “Sign up to be notified when this item becomes available.”
As a result of the spat Disney has instead been referring consumers to the Walmart and BestBuy websites to pre-order the movies.
The retail giant has been accused of trying to muscle down the prices of entertainment goods - especially after it issued an open letter to publisher Hachette last week telling the firm it would sell more eBooks if prices were slightly lower.
The message, which gives insight to Amazon's retail tactics on the whole, said: "We want lower e-book prices. Hachette does not. Many e-books are being released at $14.99 and even $19.99. That is unjustifiably high for an e-book."
Amazon, which also ceased pre-orders of Warner Home Video movies including ‘the Lego Movie,’ ‘Transcendence’ and ‘300: Rise of an Empire’ earlier this summer, has commented that it is trying to lower prices for consumers - in a move it says will boost overall sales.
This comes as the retail giant aims to tighten its belt after last month reporting a loss of $126m, the largest since 2012.
Neither Disney nor Amazon have commented on the dispute however comedian Ricky Gervais made light of the tussle, tweeting the following:
@denofgeek yeah I heard. Disney vs Amazon is also a new apocalyptic monster movie by the way.
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) August 11, 2014