A wide selection of Disney movies are showing as available in 4K on the iTunes Store as of today in the United States and Canada, including many Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars titles. However, not all movies are listed as 4K at this time.
iTunes Store content became available in 4K in 2017 in time for the launch of the Apple TV 4K box, but Disney movies were a notable exclusion.
This isn't the first time that the 4K label has showed up on Disney movies in the iTunes Store, with previous instances proving to be false alarms. In this case, however, the 4K label has shown up on a wider selection of Disney movies across multiple devices, including the iPhone, Apple TV, and even the Apple TV app on third-party platforms like Roku.
Disney movies are not showing up in 4K in all countries. In the United Kingdom and Australia, for example, users are still seeing playback limited to HD.
Disney movies are also available in 4K through Disney+ and Vudu.
(Thanks, Greg Celano!)
Top Rated Comments
I didn't check any more aside from Avengers: Endgame, but that is showing as 4K in my library. I would assume they would auto-upgrade you, because iTunes doesn't have a mechanism for paying to upgrade (like HD to 4K for example).
Hopefully things will change and Disney will make their titles 4k on apple now, and upgrade purchased movies that are 4k in other services to 4k on apple as well. I have a MoviesAnywhere account, and it's been a nice service. Buy once, watch anywhere and any service that's supported.
//edit: I didn't expand the subtext, but you can clearly see that HD owners are getting a free 4K upgrade.
I understand paying for a BluRay, which you can play as often as you want and with unparalleled quality compared to the strongly compressed streams you get online. But this? And I say that as someone who likes to go to the cinema, which can also amount to the same cost with two people, but it makes sense if you don't have the luxury of having a home cinema with Atmos and other things.
The only movies I own on 4K Blu-ray are the ones I really love and want to see in their best form again and again. Everything else can be streamed. No one really needs to see "Caddyshack" or "Airplane" in 4K. But, "Mad Max : Fury Road" or "Avengers : Infinity War" are keepers on disc. And, I think that's what a lot of videophiles are doing these days. The favorites are still disc purchases and their middle of the road films are streamed.