Finding Dory has been one of the best-received films of the year so far, earning highly positive reviews from critics and breaking records for the highest-grossing opening weekend of an animated movie. If you're one of the many who were totally entranced by the movie's voice cast and visuals, you might be looking for an opportunity to see it again. Or maybe you wanted to see Finding Dory but didn't want to spend a summer day in a movie theater, or didn't want to pay full ticket price. Either way, you might be looking for the opportunity to catch up with Dory from the comfort of your own home, but when Finding Dory will be on Netflix is, unfortunately, still a mystery.
Reports of an tentative Netflix release date for Finding Dory having varied widely — and sadly, that's normally not a good sign. You see, when a certain movie's release on Netflix is set in stone, everybody's on the same page. But when there is no set release date, it's speculation central. However, there is one piece of good news: although the actual timeframe for Finding Dory's Netflix release has not been confirmed, it is anticipated that the film will be making an appearance on the site.
Netflix and Disney recently came to an agreement that Netflix will be the exclusive home viewing subscription service for all Disney films starting in September 2016. So when the studio decides that it's time to make Finding Dory available for streaming, Netflix will get the privilege of hosting it. It will likely be much later than September, though. When Disney previously had a pay TV deal with Starz, it normally took between seven and nine months after a movie's theatrical release date for it to be available on the streaming platform. So following that logic, Finding Dory will likely be made available on Netflix between January and March 2017.
Another element that supports the notion of a far-off Netflix premiere for Finding Dory is the fact that there is not yet a set date for the movie's DVD release. It is currently available for pre-order on Amazon but without any specification of when the physical product will arrive. OnDVDReleases speculates that the DVD might come out in September or October, while DVDSReleaseDates estimates that the date will likely be in November. Either way, Finding Dory definitely won't be available on streaming services until the DVD has been available for purchase for some time, so an early 2017 Netflix release seems plausible.
You might be bummed that it'll be a long wait for Finding Dory on Netflix, but at least you can take comfort knowing that the movie will be available for streaming at some point given Netflix and Disney's contract. In the meantime, just keep swimming...
Images: Disney (2)
