Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has reportedly signed an agreement with Netflix to delay availability of selected titles from the studio for four weeks after street date. The first title under this arrangement is
The Karate Kid, which came out on October 5 and will be available for rental only from November 2.
The terms of the agreement have not been revealed, but it seems that unlike window schemes already in place for Fox, Universal and Warner titles, not all Sony titles will initially be affected.
For example, as of this writing
30 Days of Night: Dark Days is available to rent, and
Please Give will be available on October 19, with no delay in place. On the other hand,
Grown Ups (which comes out for sale on November 9) has no availability listed.
SPHE is "committed to reviewing the market impact on select titles for an unspecified period of time."
Sony titles are still available for rental at Redbox kiosks, under a distribution agreement signed in July 2009.