Numeric Sorting

It is sorting titles that start with a number as if the number is a word, instead of according to the actual value of said number.
For example, 10,000 BC is sorting before 101 Dalmations.

Is there a fix for this that doesn’t involve padding with 0s?

Unfortunately, no. But if you edit the movie entry, there is a field called “Sort Title.” You can pad the number with zeroes here and Plex will sort accordingly, but the zeroes won’t appear in the display.