Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has officially announced Avatar on Blu-ray. The release date has been set for Thursday, April 22 (Earth Day). In a first for a major theatrical release on Blu-ray, the studio will go Superbit on James Cameron’s megablockbuster and release it without any special features of any sort, in order to maximize audio and video quality. A DVD will be included with the BD.
Avatar producer Jon Landau explained to the Los Angeles Times that they told Fox that “we wanted to do something really special and reach for the best presentation of any film in the history of the format.” Landau adds, “Everything that is put on a disc takes up room – the menus, the extras, the trailers and studio promotions – and we got rid of all of that so we could give this movie the best picture and sound possible.” Extra time and care have been devoted to this project, with the video compression sessions taking six weeks, as opposed to the usual two weeks for a typical theatrical release.
A multidisc “ultimate version” Blu-ray is planned for November. Details will be given during a press event in March 23, which will be attended by Landau and Cameron.
Avatar release dates in other territories are:
- Belgium: April 21
- France: April 21
- Netherlands: April 21
- Spain: April 21
- Brazil: April 22
- Canada: April 22
- China: April 22
- Russia: April 22
- Germany: April 23
- Japan: April 23
- Mexico: April 23
- Switzerland: April 23
- UK: April 26
- Denmark: April 27
- New Zealand: April 28
- Norway: April 28
- Sweden: April 28
- Australia: April 29
- Finland: April 30
- Italy: May 6
