Online retail giant Amazon has halted pre-orders of some of Disney’s summer blockbusters including Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Maleficent in a dispute over online pricing.

Film studios count on sales of DVD and Blu-ray versions of their movies to help deliver profits because few films reach profitability in the cinema said Bloomberg.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said; “they are squeezing studios on DVD pricing, understandable given their market position.”

“Disney can’t cut them off, and Amazon can cut Disney off, so I would say Amazon has the leverage,” Pachter said.

This year Amazon has had public spats over online prices with US publisher Hachette and film studio Warner Bros.

The dispute with Warner Bros was resolved but Amazon v Hachette is still ongoing.

A group entitled Authors United published a full-page advert in the New York Times signed and paid for by a group of more than 900 authors including horror writer Stephen King and novelist Donna Tartt.

The advert urged readers to contact Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos with what they thought of the disagreement over the price of digital books.

Amazon said pricing ebooks at US$14.99 or US$19.99 is too expensive.

It claimed it would sell 74% more ebooks if they were priced at $9.99.

The online retailer published a letter online titled Readers United in which it refers to the invention of the paperback book and author George Orwell.

The letter addressed its readers to contact Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch.

According to Forrester Research Amazon dominates the digital-book market with a 60% share of the market.