"Avatar," which now holds the box office record as the biggest moneymaker in film history (thanks at least partly to inflation over the decades as well as the 3D factor), will be released in Blu-ray's 1080p disc format on April 22. The studio for the James Cameron epic, 20th Century Fox, announced plans for the intricately planned release on March 16.
Likely with endless "special editions" of the film lying in wait down the road (notably the holiday sales season next fall), the April release will be bare-bones by comparison — boasting the three hour-plus movie itself, but little else in the way of "Special Features" and other typical video-disc offerings for such a blockbuster title.
At least part of the reason for the simple approach to the release (at least for single-disc editions) is technical: Producers want to devote virtually the entire available disc capacity for the combination live action-computer generated film itself. (For Blu-ray, unlike standard DVD, that will hardly be a problem.)
Along that same technical vein, several film Web sites report the video discs in both Blu-ray and DVD formats will not carry any trailers for other films or any other promotional material, which is practically unheard of these days for any title release.
Along with other anticipated unorthodox aspects of the film's Blu-ray and DVD entry into the 2D Blu-ray realm is the fact that April 22 falls on a Thursday, while nearly other disc releases fall on a Tuesday. Among other things, a huge green theme appears to be on tap for its disc premiere — especially given the fact that April 22 is also Earth Day.
And when might "Avatar" be available on Blu-ray 3D? Good question.
