If You Don't Have Amazon Prime, You Can No Longer Buy Most 'Star Wars' Or Marvel Movies On Amazon
Amazon wants you to sign up for a Prime membership. So much so that they've realized they can withhold certain in-demand items in order to draw hapless consumers in. As a result, Amazon has now made Star Wars and Marvel DVDs and Blu-rays Prime exclusives. In other words, without prime, it's going to be harder to buy Marvel or Star Wars on Amazon.
Do you want to get your hands on new Disney Blu-ray releases like Star Wars films or MCU films? Well then, you better get an Amazon Prime account. The Verge reports that Amazon, in what is apparently a quest to lure in more Amazon Prime Members, has made Blu-ray titles like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Ant-Man, The Avengers, Captain America: First Avenger, Winter Soldier, and Civil War, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Iron Man 3, Spiderman: Homecoming, Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok exclusives for Prime members.
This isn't the first time Amazon has done this. In the past, they've made Birdman and Interstellar exclusive to Prime members as well. But obviously the Disney titles are much bigger sellers. If you don't have a Prime membership, you're not entirely out of luck. You can still purchase used copies from third-party sellers. But if you want to own a brand new Blu-ray copy of the titles listed above, you'll need a Prime membership.
When this sort of thing came up in the past, Amazon offered the following explanation:
From time to time, Amazon offers exclusive selection and pricing on select items for Prime members. Customers who are not Prime members can sign-up for a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime to benefit from these exclusive prices or they can purchase these items or similar products from third party sellers often fulfilled and shipped by Amazon.
Amazon is a business, and they want to make even more money than they already have (even though they have a lot of it), so I understand why they're doing this. They have billion-dollar Lord of the Rings TV shows to fund, after all. And they want to boost those Prime numbers. What better way to do that than by making certain in-demand items Prime exclusives? I'm a Prime member, and I definitely think it's worth it – they have a great streaming library, and I personally enjoy receiving the items I order as quick as humanly possible.
But I also realize that not everyone wants to be a Prime member. The $99-per-year membership price tag might also be far too steep for some people. As a result, Amazon pulling restrictive moves like this may cause more harm than good. In the long run, the company will still have a shit ton of money, so I doubt they'll lose much sleep over a few complaints.