Posted Sun Oct 15, 2023 at 09:00 AM PDT by D. LaFontaine
If you survived financially from the past two weeks, maybe a congrats goes out to you! This week there is a slight reprieve in the 4K category as we see the Barbie movie, a remake of Haunted Mansion, a remake of The Blob, several animated releases, and more!
Welcome to Volume 4 Episode 20 of our weekly release guide. A look at the highlights of what's coming to disc the week of October 15th - October 21th, as well as a look at announcements from last week.
Warner Bros. taking a page from Universal's play book with Barbie (the movie) getting literally a 10 day advanced notice. This film is listed as Warner's top-grossing film, ever. Taylor's Swift's Eras Tour movie looks like it might be on the way to that same achievement, assuming (best I can tell) it is also a Warner Bros property.
Next, the animated film Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match which is also from Warner Bros. The colors of the cover give me a Grand Theft Auto Vice City sort of vibe.
Disney hits the new releases 4K category another week in a row with Haunted Mansion, a remake of the film from 20 years ago. This one is available in the same peculiar release pattern of a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook, a Walmart Exclusive, nothing from Target, and, if you want the standard edition you need to go to the Disney Movie Club. Are they trying to promote the movie club, promote retailer exclusives, sabotage the format, or are they just trying to confuse everyone?
Before we go deep catalog, 2021 anime Evangelion: 3.0+1.11 Thrice Upon a Time gets a 4K Collector's Edition from GKids/Shout! Factory.
On to catalog titles, the 1988 remake of The Blob gets a standard release and a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook. This breaks from the normal release pattern in that more recent Shout SteelBooks have not been retailer exclusives, but this one is.
From Sony Pictures, 1973 drama/romance The Way We Were finally sees light of day. It had been listed on Amazon for awhile but then the listing went cold.
And closing out the 4K category, The Wicker Man comes to us domestically via LionsGate as a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook. A more elaborate release came out a few weeks ago from StudioCanal.
Next week a couple of decent imports on Monday, Meg 2, Toxie, Paramount Scares, and more!
Blu-ray counterparts of the above releases include Haunted Mansion from Disney, Barbie and Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match from Warner Bros and Evangelion: 3.0+1.11 Thrice Upon a Time from GKIDS.
For the rest of the blu-ray category, we see a moderate amount of releases. October 31st looks pretty heavy, but that's a couple of weeks out.
If the Arrow Academy still existed, this film would be under that label, The Desperate Hours comes via Arrow Video.
From Criterion Collection, Freaks / The Unknown / The Mystic: Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers.
First batch of Janus Contemporaries (distributed by Criterion) debut this week. Look for EO, The Innocent and No Bears.
There is a fair amount of TV on disc this week. Titles include The Crown: The Complete Fifth Season, Psych: The Complete Collection, Rabbit Hole: Season One, Titans: The Complete Fourth Season, Titans: The Complete Series and The Walking Dead: The Complete Collection. I used to be that guy that would question what the point in a complete series set is because fans usually buy each season as they come out. But with The Walking Dead I never got the seasons, so it's time to pounce so that I can truly see what all the hubbub is.
Anime highlights this week? Of course, look for Chihayafuru (Season 3) Premium Box Set, Naruto Shippuden Set 1 and Pokémon XY: Mega 3-Movie Collection. The Pokémon set is worth noting because there have been some gaps in our video walls for Pokémon movies if we rely on domestic releases only. Diancie & the Cocoon of Destruction had a brief appearance in the Japan market with a Japanese only soundtrack, while the other two films were German or UK releases.
Since his passing, some of Robin Williams' films have sort of been stored away in a deep vault. This week though thanks to Kino Lorber, we can check off The Best of Times from the list.
Worth a look, Well Go USA releases 3 Days in Malay, a story based on WWII. Dunkirk it is not, but it still sounds like it might be worth of a rent before you buy film.
Next week looks about like this week. 'til then....
Onesie Twosie is the name of the game for announcements You have to figure announcements today are for releases around the time of The Holidays or just after, which is typically a slow time of year.
Links are live for the 4K standard and SteelBook releases of Young Guns, which streets December 5th by the way. Youg Guns II is from a different studio, but you can still hope. Hello, Sony?
MVD's next Laservision Collection title is Cutting Class 4K, with a street date of January 16. This one dons spine number 4.
Revealed late in the week, Best Buy has decided to call it quits in the physical movie media market after the holidays. Anyone that has been in a physical store location has probably noticed entire aisles converted to other things we buy every week, like, phone cases and electric scooters. I think what threw everyone off though is that they are doing this action in all of their stores, as well as online. We had speculated over the past year that they were just simply shifting to online only. My 'local' store has struggled to keep even half their shelves stocked with movies. It doesn't take a genius to realize why that category has been underperforming, especially when half or more of the shelves sit empty. A recent internet outage at my home has reminded me why physical media is so important. (Not that I needed a reminder anyway.)
Which titles are you buying this week? Which ones are on your wishlist, be it to buy as an impulse buy or to wait for the right price?
The latest news on all things 4K Ultra HD, blu-ray and Gear.
