New Theatrical Announcements Heading To DVD and Blu-ray, Jan. 5 Update

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Anchor Bay Entertainment

02/12/13 — Sets Bully (ARR 319 days; box office: $234,164) DVD & Blu-ray

Cinema Guild

02/12/13 — Sets Planet of Snail (Korean) (ARR of 200 days; box office: $2,647) DVD only

Cohen Media Group

03/19/13 — Sets Other Son (French) (ARR of 144 days; box office: $1,160,773) DVD & Blu-ray

E1 Entertainment

02/19/13 — Sets Special Forces (ARR of 130 days; box office: $10,759) DVD & Blu-ray

First Run Features

02/12/13 — Sets Girl Model (ARR of 158 days; box office: $21,154) DVD only

02/12/13 — Sets Photographic Memory (ARR of 123 days; box office: $7,711) DVD only

MPI Home Video

02/26/13 — Sets How to Survive a Plague (ARR of 158 days; box office: $122,665) DVD only

02/26/13 — Sets Loneliest Planet (ARR of 123 days; box office: $128,519) DVD only

03/12/13 — Sets The Flat (ARR of 144 days; box office: $456,413) DVD only

03/26/13 — Sets Union Square (ARR of 256 days; box office: $44,830) DVD only

Magnolia Home Entertainment

01/22/13 — Sets Nature Calls (ARR of 74 days; box office: $382) DVD & Blu-ray

01/22/13 — Sets Nobody Walks (ARR of 95 days; box office: $24,995) DVD & Blu-ray

02/05/13 — Sets Deadfall (ARR of 60 days; box office: $61,968) (DVD & Blu-ray

* ARR - Asset Rollover Rate: The number of days between a film's initial theatrical debut and its subsequent release on DVD and/or Blu-ray.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

Paramount Home Media Distribution's Flight Lands On DVD & Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack On Feb. 5

There was a point in director Tony Scott’s 2009 remake of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, when you begin to ponder the end of Denzel Washington’s career as a leading man.   That whole “action” ending seemed tacked on as if it suddenly dawned on everyone, “what have we done?”

Apparently, and we are only guessing at this, Denzel saw the film, got the message and said, not again … at least for now.   He followed with The Book of Eli, Unstoppable, Safe House and now Flight — the blubber belly gone and back in control of both his characters and the screen.

Flight is likely to get him an Oscar nomination — but who wants to be up against Daniel Day Lewis this year?   Nevertheless, Paramount Home Media Distribution, perhaps sensing that the buzz will be strongest leading into this year’s Oscar festivities on Sunday, Feb. 24, has tabbed Feb. 5 for the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack (with UltraViolet) and DVD release of director Robert Zemeckis’ Flight.

The ARR comes in at a swift-to-market 95 days and the box take currently stands at $92.1 million (it will move higher, especially if Oscar nominations are in the works).

On first glance this looks to be a dramatic tale about a drunken pilot who finds redemption.  That holds.  You really don’t have to go any further than that.   

However, Zemeckis has managed to weave in many of the elements of his 2000 film, Cast Away (Tom Hanks, it should be noted was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar), into the storyline of Flight.   

Both films feature spectacularly-staged jet crashes — not just the crash itself, but all of the little elements that go into a well-crafted sequence.   Sound, visuals and small action details that have you, as a viewer, riveted and focused on what is transpiring on the screen.

And both films feature their central characters stranded on islands.   Hanks in a literal sense and Washington in a more subtle and cerebral manner — the result is the same, they are both trapped.

The solution to their respective nightmares comes when each in turn risks all to gain their freedom. 

The parallels between the two films are there, but in the hands of a master filmmaker of Robert Zemeckis caliber the central touchstones seem both fresh and different.

As to bonus nuggets, exclusive to the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack are three production featurettes — “Origins of Flight,” “The Making of Flight” and “Anatomy of a Plane Crash.”

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

FilmWorks Entertainment: Illegal Debuts On DVD Mar. 19

The Hollywood studios have used illegal immigration and drug-dealing along the border that separates the United States and Mexico as the backdrop for such high-profile films as director Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic; Tony Richardson’s 1982 film, The Border (with Jack Nicholson and Harvey Keitel) and John Sayles’ brilliant 1996 bit of cinematic storytelling, Lone Star (Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Peña, Kris Kristofferson and Matthew McConaughey).

There are more, many more.  Big films, little films, arthouse, foreign — Touch of Evil, El Norte, A Better Life, La Misma Luna all spring to mind.   When you are talking about the human spirit, struggles, hopes, dreams, desperation, corruption … good and evil, you have a rich source to mine.

Now comes word from FilmWorks Entertainment that director Ric Dupont’s Illegal (aka: Ilegales) will be making its DVD debut on Mar. 19.  

Illegal has been working the film festival circuit these past couple of years (Sedona International Film Festival, Plaza Classic Film Festival in El Paso, Texas, the New York International Latino Film Festival, etc.) to sold-out performances, solid reviews and its share of festival awards, including Best Director laurels for Ric Dupont at the Naperville Independent Film Festival in 2011.  

Filmworks Entertainment is well-positioned to leverage this track record of film festival achievements and audience adulations into success at the next level … they’ve given themselves two and half months to work the street and pound the sales drum for this one.

Shirley Rumierk (left) In FilmWorks Entertainment's Illegal (Mar. 19)

Dupont, with a solid background in television news and documentary filmmaking, gives this dramatic tale — five interwoven stories — a rich cinéma vérité texture that draws us into the film, the stories and the people with a certain sense of intimacy … at times the actors literally disappear into their characters.   

Indeed, one can’t help but marvel at the performances of both Shirley Rumierk (Gun Hill Road, Game Change, etc. … plus the long-servicing host of the New York City Emmy-winning television show, Cool in Your Code) as Maribel, a lowly Juarez, Mexico waitress, with a moral code and sense of honor; duty that belies her station in life, and Luis Bordonada as Ariel, a migrant laborer who step by step finds himself going over to the dark side as the relentless pressures of time begin to consume him and his dreams of a better life.

Bonus goodies include a photo gallery and bonus footage.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

New Theatrical Announcements Heading To DVD and Blu-ray, Jan. 3 Update

Cohen Media Group

01/15/13 — Sets Farewell, My Queen (French) (ARR of 186 days; box office: $1,341,601)

First Run Features

03/05/13 — Sets Waiting for Lightning (ARR of 88 days; box office: $19,537)

Lionsgate Home Ent.

03/05/13 — Sets The Bay (ARR of 123 days; box office: $30,474)


* ARR - Asset Rollover Rate: The number of days between a film's initial theatrical debut and its subsequent release on DVD and/or Blu-ray.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

Inventory of New Theatrical Releases With a Box Office Gross of at Least $25 Million

Calendar of $25 Million-Plus Theatrical Releases as of January 03, 2013

  

* ARR - Asset Rollover Rate: The number of days between a film's initial theatrical debut and its subsequent release on DVD and/or Blu-ray.


To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report

New Theatrical Announcements Heading To DVD and Blu-ray, Jan. 2 Update

Arc Entertainment

03/05/13 — Sets Unconditional (ARR of 165 days; box office: $1,005,800)  DVD Only

E1 Entertainment

02/05/13 — Sets Last Quartet (ARR of 95 days; box office: $1,267,156) DVD & Blu-ray

First Run Features

03/19/13 — Sets Gottfried Helnwein and the Dreaming Child (ARR of 116 days; box office: $402) DVD Only

Magnolia Home Entertainment

03/12/13 — Sets Royal Affair (ARR of 123 days; box office: $624,512) DVD & Blu-ray

Strand Releasing

02/19/13 — Sets North Sea Texas (Dutch) (ARR of 109 days; box office: $23,963) DVD Only

03/05/13 — Sets California Solo (ARR of 95 days; box office: $12,952) DVD Only

 

20^th Century-Fox Home Ent.

02/19/13 — Sets Atlas Shrugged, Part II (ARR of 130 days; box office: $3,333,823) DVD & Blu-ray

02/26/13 — Sets Chasing Mavericks (ARR of 123 days; box office: $5,940,992) DVD & Blu-ray

ARR - Asset Rollover Rate: The number of days between a film's initial theatrical debut and its subsequent release on DVD and/or Blu-ray.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report