The end of Netflix’s DVD rental service doesn’t just cut off people who’ve not made the switch to streaming, it also cuts all of us off from tens of thousands of films.  Netflix reportedly had around 100,000 titles for rent on DVD, adding new titles monthly (11 new titles were added in April 2023 alone). That’s far more than the 6,200 or so titles currently available on the US version of Netflix, according to one estimate.

As well as being a shallower pool of content, it also draws from a narrower range. Want to watch a movie from the 1940s, the decade that gave the world classics like Citizen Kane, The Third Man, and It’s a Wonderful Life? You’re out of luck on Netflix’s streaming service: Zero movies from the decade are available at present. The only recognizable movie out of the four from the 1950s available to stream right now is White Christmas. A movie fan sitting down twice a week in front of Netflix would even exhaust the platform’s collection of 1990s movies within a year.

“There were a better range of films, especially what some would call art films and classic films, on the Netflix DVD service,” says Dan Therriault, screenwriter of HBO series First Time Felon. “Those films most likely will not appear on the streaming service. Audiences seeking that cinematic experience will have to go elsewhere,” says Therriault, who subscribed to Netflix DVDs in the late 1990s but shifted over to the streaming service a few years ago. “Which is what the company was pushing people to do,” he says. It’s that rich depth of content that Landale’s parents and grandmother will also most keenly miss. “I don’t think there are any movie rental places nearby,” Landale says. “Netflix seemed to kill off most of those.”