SteelBooks used to be a collector’s treat—something you’d spot on a shelf, nestled between your Criterion editions and that one out-of-print Arrow Video set you’ll never open but will defend to the death. But now? They’ve become a lightning rod for controversy in the physical media world, with the upcoming 4K release of Tombstone setting off what can only be described as a small-scale civil war in collector circles. Walmart’s got it listed at $54.98. Target had it for $41.49. Amazon too. Both are sold out. And no one really knows why we’re paying this much for a single disc with a metal case and no new special features.
There are a few possibilities, none of them comforting. For starters, it’s Tombstone. This is a movie that’s lived in the hearts of Gen X and elder Millennial dudes for decades. It’s endlessly rewatchable. It’s got Val Kilmer at his absolute peak. And now, just a week after Kilmer passed away, Disney’s suddenly dropping a SteelBook edition of the film that collectors have been begging for. Maybe the timing is a grim coincidence. Maybe it’s the savviest bit of corporate necromancy we’ve seen in a while. Either way, they knew people would want it. And they priced it like they knew people would want it.
But this goes deeper than just one release. Disney has been pulling back hard from physical media lately, but they haven’t abandoned it completely. Instead, they’ve shifted focus to premium collectors’ items. No more wide releases of Strange World or Turning Red. If you want to hold a Disney disc in your hand in 2025, chances are it’s going to be a SteelBook. And chances are it’s going to cost you north of $40. Sometimes way north.
That’s where Scanavo comes in. They’re the Danish company that owns the SteelBook trademark, and for all intents and purposes, they are the SteelBook industry. If a case says SteelBook on it, it’s probably from them. While the company itself is based in Denmark, it’s unclear exactly where they source their materials, though Canada is a likely candidate for the steel. The cases are usually shipped to disc replication plants—most commonly in Mexico—where everything gets assembled. And that’s where the price starts to balloon. The steel. The printing. The tariffs. The shipping. The assembly. By the time it reaches the shelf, it’s easy to see how a disc could land at $45 or more. And when you’re Disney, you’re not aiming for mass appeal. You’re aiming for the guys who already bought three versions of Heat.
Let’s not forget the Deadpool & Wolverine SteelBook situation last summer, either. Disney opened preorders for a special edition SteelBook tied to the new film, and it sold out almost instantly. Within hours, it was being flipped on eBay for double, sometimes triple the price. That felt like a trial run, a litmus test. Would collectors pay more for limited-run SteelBooks of hot properties? The answer was yes. And here we are. Tombstone is the first real follow-up to that little experiment.
Then you look at Lilo & Stitch, and the whole thing gets even weirder. The 4K is coming soon, but there’s no SteelBook. It’s just a regular release. No metal. No inflated price. Just thirty bucks. Why? Because Disney knows who’s buying it. It’s not the middle-aged collector crowd. It’s parents. Families. People who aren’t spending fifty-five dollars on a movie that came out when they were in kindergarten. Disney didn’t put out a SteelBook for Lilo & Stitch because they know it wouldn’t move the same way. But Tombstone? That’s a different story. That’s a shrine movie. That’s a rewatch-on-a-holiday, quote-it-in-the-garage-with-your-buddies movie. That’s a Val Kilmer movie. And now that he’s gone, it’s a legacy item.
None of this feels accidental. In fact, it feels like Disney is using SteelBooks as their new physical media model. Why produce thousands of copies of every new movie when you can release a few hundred thousand premium-priced editions of films you already own and have sitting in the vault? It’s easy. It’s profitable. And if collectors feel a little milked in the process, well—what else are they going to do? Buy digital?
It’s hard to say if Tombstone is the start of a new normal or just a temporary spike driven by real-world events. But either way, it’s proof that physical media isn’t dead. It’s just evolving. And the people left holding the disc are the ones willing to pay more, wait longer, and argue about it online.
Welcome to the new frontier. Disney’s your huckleberry now.
Hollywood After Dark 