Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Gets Whipsawed On The Home Entertainment Launch Of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood For Dec. 10

Best movie of the year.  Period.  That would be writer/director Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood.

Getting it from its successful theatrical run to the home entertainment arena has been a test for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.   For all-the-world it looked like Oct. 29 would be the “natural” street date for the home entertainment packaged media launch, but early October arrived and nothing, nada, zilch.   

Towards the end of October we found out that China, that big bad bully, was insisting that all of the Bruce Lee sequences be cut or the film would not be allowed to be released in the country’s theatres.    Tarantino told them to go pound sand (good for him).  Maybe it was the China dust-up that was creating the problem.

Crickets … still nothing.   And then it was announced that a longer version of Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood would be re-released theatrically on Friday, Oct. 25 — an additional four complete sequences that were cut from the original theatrical release (adding ten more minutes of running time) — on somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 screens nationwide.

And then, literally hours after those theatrical screens lit up with the longer version, Ingram’s Videoeta website jumped the gun early on Saturday morning (just about the time that The Ohio State University was taking Wisconsin to the woodshed) and revealed that Dec. 10 will be the street date — without details — for a three-SKU release.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has been whipsawed seven ways from sundown with the drama of it all, so it is understandable that the film’s backdoor home entertainment announcement arrived without a formal press release.

Dec. 10, we might add, is going to be a blockbuster street-date Tuesday for the home entertainment packaged media marketplace.   Already in place is Universal Pictures Home Entertainment’s Hustlers ($101.8 million in box office receipts) and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced this past week that It: Chapter Two would also be released on Dec. 10 ($209.6 million in domestic ticket sales … see separate announcement).

With all of this, the ARR for Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood works out to 137 days and domestic theatrical revenues crossed the $140 million mark during the weekend with the re-release of the longer version.

Planned for release are Combo Packs for both the 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray) and Blu-ray (with DVD) formats, plus there will be a stand-alone DVD edition.   At this time it remains a mystery as to which version of the film is being released.  It would not come as a surprise if there were additional SKUs in the works, including a much-rumored “Director’s Cut” of the film.   

Update: 5:15 AM Monday morning, Oct. 28.   Overnight Target started taking pre-orders for a Dec. 10 delivery at their on-line website.   Still no details.

Update: 8:15 AM Monday morning, Oct. 28.   Amazon went live with pre-orders for Dec. 10.   No details.

At 9:10 AM it became official with the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment press announcement.   It would be nice if some of the industry leaders (retailers, etc.) would show a little discipline and let the PR people — and those that represent them — over at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment do their job.   Getting the jump on everyone else has become an industry obsession.

With that said, the bonus goodies include — across all editions — an additional 20 minutes worth of additional scenes.    Exclusive to the Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack editions are give featurettes — “Quentin Tarantino’s Love Letter to Hollywood,” “Bob Richardson: For the Love of Film,” “Shop Talk: The Cars of 1969,” “Restoring Hollywood: The Production Design of Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” and “The Fashion of 1969.”

There’s more … in addition to the aforementioned consumer buying options, there will be a limited edition 4K Ultra HD Collector’s Edition which includes the 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack discs, plus a 7” vinyl record, a collectible vintage poster for the Rick Dalton film Operazione Dyn-o-mite! and a a collectible vintage poster for the Rick Dalton film Operazione Dyn-o-mite!