If you haven’t noticed by now, or unless you’ve been living under a rock, the Superman film series has come out now on 4K Ultra HD format from Warner Home Video in both regular and steelbook formats. I managed to secure a copy of the steelbook set for my collection, and so far in the various CapedWonder and fan pages I have secured one of the lower numbers of the steelbook sets: number 279.

Today I was finally able to download the digital code for the films across the various streaming platforms, and was I ever surprised by what was included with each film. So let’s look at them one by one.

Superman: The Movie

With the iTunes version of the film, the extended TV cut has been included with the film in 2K format.

On the Movies Anywhere platform, the extended TV cut, which was previously made available in a separate purchase, has now been moved to the theatrical release as an optional feature. On Amazon Prime, however, it continues to be carried separately.

With both streaming services, only two added video features are included: the 1980 documentary The Making of Superman: The Movie and the 1951 feature film Superman and the Mole Men.

And on iTunes you get the added audio commentary from Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler. This is a vast cutdown from what was given to fans in the DVD release from 2006 and the Blu-ray version in 2011. Lots of added features, documentaries, screen tests, trailers, and musical tracks are left off the streaming platforms.

Superman II (1980-81)

With both streaming services, you get the TV documentary The Making of Superman II and one deleted scene, “Superman’s Soufflé”, with re-edited sound effects and music as it was originally intended for the extended version of the Richard Donner Cut. iTunes also includes an audio commentary from Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler.

Essentially, the iTunes version conforms to the first disc of the Superman II special edition DVD release from 2006.

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

With the Donner Cut, both services include the introduction from Richard Donner, the featurette Superman II: Restoring the Vision, and all six deleted scenes from the original DVD release. Also included on the iTunes release is the audio commentary from Donner and Tom Mankiewicz. The iTunes version conforms to the 2006 DVD release.

Also, with the case of the Donner Cut, the longer 122-minute alternate cut continues to be carried by Amazon Prime… for now.

Superman III

Here’s where things start getting cut down again substantially. On both streaming platforms we are given only these six deleted scenes from the extended TV version…

…whereas the iTunes version includes the audio commentary from Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler.

Missing in action is the Making of Superman III documentary from 1986. Also MIA are the added scenes “Save My Baby”, “To the Rescue”, “The Con”, “Boss Wants This To Go”, and “Superman Honored”, all from the extended TV version.

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

This altered version of the film, which contains the seven alternate German musical tracks, includes eleven of the fifteen deleted scenes from the film, while the iTunes version includes the audio commentary from Mark Rosenthal.

So which deleted scenes from IV are MIA? “Clark’s Morning”, “Nuclear Man’s Prototype”, “Metropolis After Hours”, and “Red Alert”, all of which were included on the DVD and Blu-ray releases.

So why the omission of certain features from the digital platforms? It goes back to what I had earlier speculated—availability, licensing rights, deciding what’s important and what isn’t important. In the end, the physical media will always win out over digital media for the home viewers because of the wealth of additional material that DVD and Blu-ray have offered over the years. And in the case of the Superman movies, physical media is the clear winner over its digital counterparts.