Avatar 3D Blu-ray from Panasonic
“Avatar” will be coming to Blu-ray in 3D this November after all, but it won’t be available for purchase or rental in stores or online alongside the previously announced Fox Ultimate Edition 2D version.
The top-grossing movie in the history of cinema, in large part because of the groundbreaking use of 3D, will only be offered in 3D on Blu-ray for the first several months with the purchase of Panasonic 3D Blu-ray equipment, multiple sources have told 3DHollywood.net.
3DHollywood.net has also learned that Disney is close to finalizing a deal with Sony Electronics to release “Alice in Wonderland” in 3D on Blu-ray this fall exclusively with the purchase of Sony 3D hardware.
None of the sources, some very close to the filmmakers and others close to the companies involved in the release strategy, would officially confirm the news or talk on the record. Fox, Disney, Panasonic, and Sony Electronics either did not return calls or had no comment about this story.
The number and caliber of major titles being bundled for exclusive release with hardware products is highly unusual, if not unprecedented in home video, particularly with almost no titles being released for general consumption at retail. And studios are being paid ever-increasing fees — in the millions of dollars for each title — by hungry electronics companies that have put themselves into bidding wars.
Even though many major electronics companies except Sony have had 3D TVs and 3D Blu-ray players on the market for some months, until this week only one 3D Blu-ray title was available to consumers, and that movie — DreamWorks’ “Monsters vs. Aliens” — was also only available with the purchase of Samsung 3D TVs and 3D Blu-ray players. That Samsung window expired Sunday with no word of a general retail release upcoming for “Monsters.”
This week Fox and Panasonic, as well as Universal, announced the immediate availability of the first 3D Blu-ray versions of “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” and “Coraline” only with the purchase of a Panasonic Blu-ray player. There are no announced plans for either of those titles to be available to traditional retail in 2010.
Sony’s previously announced that “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” will be the first 3D Blu-ray title to be released through traditional retail channels — it’s expected in late June or early July. But even that title’s distribution will be focused on bundled sales with Sony 3D HDTVs which are due to hit the market early next month in time for the 3D TV broadcasts of the World Cup soccer matches, sponsored by Sony.
“Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is bringing the first retail Blu-ray 3D sku to market early this summer with ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,’ ” said Lexine Wong, senior executive VP worldwide marketing. “While the title will be primarily bundled with Sony 3D HDTVs, we feel it is also necessary to offer a standalone retail 3D version of “Cloudy” for our retailers and consumers who are excited about acquiring more 3D content for their 3D TVs.”
SPHE is also releasing a 3D Blu-ray of World Cup highlights later this year, and will likely release 3D titles such as “Monster House” and and “Open Season” on 3D Blu-ray, though it’s not known if they will be available at retail.
Disney announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January that it would release “Disney’s A Christmas Carol” “broadly” on 3D Blu-ray in the fourth quarter. That is expected to mean a general retail release — now set for November 16 — since it is the only title of all the others not to have already been released on Blu-ray Disc in 2D. In fact, the only way to get the 3D version will be to buy all other versions– 2D Blu-ray and DVD discs and a digital copy for computers and other devices — in a four-disc combo pack priced at $49.99 ($10 more than the single-disc 2D Blu-ray version). The 3D disc will also include a special 3D bonus feature called “Scrooge’s Wild Ride,” according to HDroom.com.
Other Disney 3D movies such as “Bolt” are being considered for 3D Blu-ray in the not-too-distant future.
Disney is also finalizing a special 3D Showcase Blu-ray disc that may be packaged with hardware from multiple manufacturers. The Showcase disc will include a sampler of trailers and shorts such as an original 3D short featuring Lion King characters Timon and Pumbaa produced expressly for this Showcase disc. It will also include the 1953 3D Disney animated short “Working for Peanuts” and promotional trailers of upcoming 3D Blu-ray releases such as “Alice” and “Christmas Carol” as well as “Toy Story 3″ and “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
Consumer electronics companies, particularly Sony, Samsung, and Panasonic, are said to be escalating rights fees they are willing to pay for major movies to help sell new 3D products. Of course, that’s just fine with studios since the fees are more than they figure to generate from a traditional retail release when the current market for home 3D is nearly non-existent at this moment and not expected to grow substantially this year.
And most seem to feel that all the bundling at this point is a good thing for the nascent industry if such enticements seed the market with homes that become equipped to watch 3D.
Ironically, the only people who may be negatively affected could be the very people who respond to these offers. For instance, a consumer who bought Samsung’s 3DTV and 3D Blu-ray player would theoretically be forced to go out and buy another 3D TV and Blu-ray machine every time he wants to watch another 3D Blu-ray movie like “Avatar” or “Ice Age 3.” But consumer electronics companies are expected to work out a way for consumers who have already purchased 3D equipment to get access to further releases, at least from the same company.
Also, it’s not clear whether the 3D Blu-ray version of “Avatar” will include all the bonus features available on the special 2D “Ultimate Edition” being released simultaneously, which would give consumers yet another tough decision to make, especially after many of them already purchased the first bare-bones 2D Blu-ray version of “Avatar” last month.
Release strategies are always a challenge with a new format. Most filmmakers and sometimes even studio executives don’t want to release their titles to a market of only a few hundred thousand homes, or even a few million. Steven Spielberg and Universal withheld the release of any of his major hits on DVD for several years until that format achieved mass market status, although the filmmaker did agree to release the Sony-controlled “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” in the very early stages of the launch of Blu-ray Disc several years ago when Sony needed help in fending off competing format HD DVD. But Spielberg and George Lucas still have not released many of their biggest movies on Blu-ray Disc as yet, most notably “Jaws,” “Jurassic Park,” and “Star Wars.”
The June 18 theatrical release “Toy Story 3,” seemingly a natural for a 4th quarter release on Blu-ray, may not be a candidate to have a 3D component this holiday season. Even though Disney has been one of the strongest proponents of 3D theatrically and intends to carry that aggressive strategy into the home market, sources say that none of sister company Pixar’s 3D movies or shorts are on the schedule for a 3D Blu-ray release as yet, including the little-seen 3D version of “Tokyo Mater” — one of several “CarsToon” computer-animated “Mater’s Tall Tales” that got some of the most enthusiastic reactions as part of a 3D Blu-ray demo at Disney’s D23 Expo last September.
– By Scott Hettrick
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I think the bundles are a good idea for helping people sell the tv’s. The 3d blu rays should be available for everyone to purchase as a stand alone and not just with a certain tv.
Full ack to Jason.
Nice thing on bundles is the marketing effect, bad side is everyone already owning an 3d tv has to wait longer as needed for 3d content which is rare
Bundling releases and keeping them off the shelves for separate purchase will hurt 3D Bluray. Lack of content will frusterate early adopters of the TVs and Players. I foresee alot more online bluray images of hard to obtain discs posted illegally online due it.
There is little enough 3D content in existence with only 400 titles produced in the last 100 years (most of which are not marketable). Exclusive deals of desirable content will reduce the content available to consumers to the point that there is little incentive to purchase the hardware. I was planning on buying a new 3D projector this fall, but with the prospect of having almost no content, I can wait.
The CE companies should all want as much content generally available as possible instead of trying to tie it up in exclusive deals that simply turn off consumers. Only Sony seems to understand this simple principle.
I am an early adopter,purchasing my Samsung plasma 7000 series 3D HDTV in April.This INFURIATES ME TO NO END!!!!!!!!!!! To be blunt, they can kiss my ass all the way up to pink part!!! I will never purchase any of these films on BD after thay become available!!!!
Instead i am willing to wait for other releases that are not part of a bundle,so if these marketing CRETINS think that they’ll get my money after the biggest marketing blunder since New Coke,they’d better think twice!! After all,i’ve waited 46 years for 3DTV, a few more months won’t hurt for other ,more ethical, and common sense marketing efforts.
Whoever concieved and approved these schemes should be publicly humiliated,fired,dragged through the streets,burned at the stake…………Okay, thats a bit harsh,but only a bit. These butt monkeys are only giving the finger to early adopters,when they should be kissing our arses for helping them get their products off the ground.
This is my first and last time into the realm of early adoption of any product,and i will never be duped into doing it for a service again either.I am not very thrilled with my experiences thus far by becoming an early adopter of WiMax internet service .Also,for the first time in my life ,i would consider purchasing pirated products due to this idiotic move.
But there hasn’t been a movie made yet, that is good enough to drive my purchase decision making.And i doubt there ever will be one good enough to over ride quality to cost ratio,which is my deciding factor in all my purchases.Can someone please explain to me what harm would come to making these titles available to those of us who have already purchased a 3D BluRay player and a 3DTV?
All i have left to say to them is that they are assholes, one and all of them.
This is seriously stupid and directly encourages pirating.
Is anyone seriously going to buy a new TV or Blu-ray player just to get Alice In Wonderland or Avatar before anyone else? Maybe a minuscule fraction of gullible “one-uppers”. But more likely will be the attitude of … If I own a 3D Blu-ray player and 3DTV and want to watch Alice In Wonderland or Avatar, you can bet darn well that if there’s a black-market copy available, I’ll certainly be buying it since there’s no legal way for me to get it.
Hollywood is full of the dumbest scumbags on the planet (aside from Washington DC of course)
I recently purchased a samsung 55c8000 series. I am goin to have to look for pirated Blurays 3d movies now.
Maybe the best way is to d/l the content from a pirated source and burn it on the BR disc.
These companies thinking they can make major cash out of consumer electronics, but I will not pay more than another penny after buying their equipments.
Time for another limewire Bluray 3d or Bit torrent 3D site to pop up.
I bought a 3D plasma from Samsung fully aware of this situation, but that certainly doesn’t mean I am happy about it. I completely agree with the other comments that this will only hurt 3D sales. They should be flooding the market with as much 3D content as possible. I’ve had a number of people come over this past weekend to check out my new TV… I couldn’t show them a single true 3D image. Now admittedly I am waiting my bonus Samsung 3D Blu Ray player I will be getting as part of the purchase via redemption, but even if I had it already, the only movie I would have to demonstrate is Monsters Vs Aliens… which wasn’t exactly the pinnacle of 3D content during its theatrical release.
I want one of those 82″ Mitsubichi RPTVs (I can’t use a fromt projector due to light problems and this is the biggest RPTV screen I can afford.) that supposidly is 3D ready. However, I can’t find anyone in the Orlando area who can actually demo the unit in 3D. Therer seems to be a compatability problem between the different systems that the manufactureres are trying to hide from the general public. This is another case where the greed factor is so high that you (the public) are guaranteed to lose out if you pick the wrong system. Remember Beta vs VHS? Or SACD vs DVD-Audio (They both lost out!) Or the various versions of quad? Or the latest Blu-ray vs HD-DVD? (I opted out of that one and am still waiting to purchase a universal player, probably by Oppo, that will play 3D Blu-ray, DVD, DVD-Audio, SACD, CD, etc., etc. on a Mitsubichi RPTV through a reciever that will pass 3D signals using the new HDMI 1.4 standard with 9.2 surround sound decocing (probaboly by Onkyo).
The software producers have it all wrong. (Probably because they are tied to the movie industry which is used to doing things their own way since they started producing movies.) When CDs first came out, I was initerested but not enough to spend my cash on a new unproven product. SONY and Phillips agreed to produce only one type of CD and made it compatable with the “Red Book Standards” which anyone could use. Record producers such as SONY, Telarc, Angel, etc. sent out sampler CDs to sjubscribers of Hi-Fi, and Audio magazines for FREE!!!!
When CDs fist came out,I had four sampler CDs in my hot grubby hands with nothing to play them on. This motivated me to spend over $600.00 (which at that time was a relative fortune) for my first CD player. I now have several thousand CDs. I have a couple of dozen SACDs and DVD-Audio disks. I even have a couple of hundred DVDs (Mostly previously viewed from Blockbuster.) But, no Blu-rays.
I’ve been burned too may times. Now I sit back and wait for the other guys to clear out the muck.
If the electronics industry wants 3D Blu-ray to repeat the success of the CD it’s going to have to set an open standard as it did with the CD then pass out free samples inviting everybody to the party. Otherwise, the window of opportunity is going to come crashing down while everyone tries to blame the other guy for screwing things up.
It’s all about money. Consumers have the power to say that we don’t like being taken to the cleaners. It all depends on how we choose to spend our money. I for one won’t be supporting any of this. Electronics companies will find any way possible to force consumers to purchase new equipment every 3-5 years. We have the power to resist this by just saying no.
I agree, this is absolute bs. In this economy, they expect people to buy certain tv’s for certain bluray movies and then not even have one universal 3d format for the systems. How can they all not agree on one 3d format with a standard pair of glasses. its not like any of this stuff is cheap. people used to complain about the XBOX 360 being too high priced, then the PS3. Now regular consumers who just got into the HDMI format are going to suddenly change to HDMI 1.4 and buy a whole new system. I can afford all systems, but I think this is ridiculous. Until, the companies organize and create one universal system, just like the competition and elimination of HD-DVD with blu-ray, sales will not be great and companies are going to have to adjust. They are morons thinking people will want to wait for movies and buy a specific system due to certain movies. Avatar might have the power to do that, but the whole idea is still ridiculous. But even with Avatar, that is a double dip Blu-ray movie and people will wait for the formats. Alice in Wonderland is a horrible 3D movie and will not sell that well, same with Clash of the Titans. Companies are going to competitively knock each other off and 3D will not strive until things are cleared up.
Until they come out with one universal system for 3D, count me out.
this is very annoying as i have a 3D pc monitor and blu-ray drive. Im running powerdvd10 ultra so I can get 3D blu-ray later in the year. I have no problem with the idea of bundles but the fact that they are not putting the movies on the shelfs is going to ruin it.
The idea of getting the movie with the player instead of having to buy it off the shelf is good, but if is not on the shelf what is the point?.
2 things.
-> Get the movies out there
-> Show that the movies are here as well
I find that this bundling of movies with hardware is unfair to the consumer. How on earth can one justify buying a new system every time you want to buy a new movie. The idea is proposterous. If the tech industry is serious about 3D, and wants the public to accept it and make the investment, they should avoid making the media impossible to purchase. I personally own a Samsung 3D system and am really annoyed with the news that AVATAR will only be available to Panasonic owners. There has to be a way to make the titles available to everyone that has made the investment into the technology.
Yes this bundling is a bunch of crap. Its fine if they want to bundle movies and glasses to make a sale but the movie itself should also be seperate for purchace and work with any 3d player. If they dont get there crap together 3d blue ray will not survive. Nobody is going to by 3 or 4 diffrent tvs just to get the 3d movie that they make exclusive for each brand. I wish now I would have not purchaced 3d tv and player for this reason.
Funny, I thought 3D blu-ray was a “standard”… It plays on all the new 3D TV, from all brands…
The timed releases are IMO, a bad idea. The fact they are tied to brand specific TV’s for a limited time has nothing to do with compatibility though so rest easy.
Older 3D – now that’s another kettle of fish… If you want to play this you need a tv that will support, SBS, A&B, FS and checkerboard.
There are already true 3D versions of the currently “withheld” 3D films such as avatar floating around the web. Given, not quite as good as the blurays will be but still very good stereo 3D all the same.
oh my god…
what are they thinking about us? PanasonicSonySamsung (expletive deleted) YOU! WE, THE CONSUMERS, ARE NOT AS DUMB AS YOU THINK! Until theres no Standard 3D BD, i won’t buy any of them!! and if i have to download the Bluray Illegally i will do, cause I WILL NOT SUPPORT THIS BUNCH OF CRAP..
what a load of shite . look at the Christmas carol box set .which is reported to be the only way to get it in 3d . some 40 year old guy that has bought and got his bluray player running . picks it up ,looks it and replys “well i dont need to pay all that money for 3d version, i just wanted a bluray” without knowing that the bluray 3d and non 3d work are on the same disc. do they think were idiots, like the 2d bluray comes on its own disc . no its the same as 3d film . its no different to sticking a patch on a video game.
and what the fuck im gonna do with a dvd ,go in the other room and watch it worse quality after watching it allready. or even worse a digital copy . how many places will i need to watch the f***ing christmas carol . what do they think i will need a copy for each room in the house and for on the go so i can watch the same movie ALL DAY EVERYDAY. stupid
and then bundling movies with hardware. yer…im sure that will help with piracy , which has allready started with 3d content. “here buy this player so you can watch ONE FILM” . and what about sony . ” we are upgrading all ps3′s to be able to run 3d media, the millions of ps3 systems are allready for 3d use………” ow yer you will need a new bluray player to get a film”
I have recently been reviewing 3D TV and blue-ray players and I was seriously considering buying one. However, these bundling deals have just ruined it for me. This type of marketing places the entire future of 3D blue-ray in jeopardy. This reminds me of the old Betamax Vs VHS war where many thousands of people ended up with useless Betamax video players when VHS took over the market.
For this reason, I, and many other eager consumers, will probably boycott 3D systems until this nonsense is rectified.
The market is effectrively strangling itself over a chicken and egg situation – buy a 3D system and get one movie but perhaps wait 5 years before any more are freely available.. Or don’t buy a 3D system and the studios will not invest in producing 3D blue-ray movies for the open market. Either way, unless ALL 3D movies are freely available and can be played on any manufacturers system, 3D is doomed. Why can’t the studios and the system manufacturers see this?
I own a large 3D ready tv, a wonderful 3D ready Bluray player, and FOUR pairs of shutter glasses. Clearly I am perfectly ready and willing to spend money on a good theater experience in the home. My entire DVD and Bluray collection is 100% legit… no pirating here. If they release these 3D Blurays with bundles only, after I’ve already invested so much in 3D technology, I will find a way to get my hands on them, and obviously it won’t be through the stores.
I have ZERO interest in pirating films… don’t screw me here guys. But if you do screw me, I’ll be sure to return the favor.
Hopefully my 3d for my Mitsubishi comes with some asian porn. It only makes sense right!
I have purchaced a 3dtv and 3d bluray player and 4 pairs 3d shutter glasses. We have watched aliens verus monsters 4 bloody times because theres nothing else. Friends of mine are interested in purchacing 3dtv as well. But they were with me watching the only bloody movie I can get. They are not going to purchace a 3dtv untill all titles including avatar, alice in wonderland, etc can be brought over the counter from any retail store. In the meantime if pirated 3d blu-rays hit the market let me know I will buy them for sure. These big companys are damaging the sales of 3dtv. And lets face it 3d is cool but its not that great. To make it work out for everyone they should be saturating the market with 3d content. To sell it????