Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Picks Aug. 27 For The Full Spread Physical Media Launch Of Director Wes Ball's King Of The Planet Of The Apes

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will be guiding the Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment release of the 20th Century Studios’ (without the “Fox”) production of director Wes Ball’s latest installment in the Planet of the Apes franchise, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, on Aug. 27 as a full spread physical media launch.

Unpacking that opening sentence seems insane.  Disney buys rival 20th Century-Fox, drops the Fox, does precious little with the asset and then turns over the entire library of films, series and other programming (Disney and Fox) for distribution as DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD product offerings to another rival studio.   How is that not odd, if not completely insane?

Moving on, Aug. 27 will see the distribution of a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack, plus stand-alone DVD and Blu-ray editions.

The ARR works out to 109 days and the domestic box office take currently stands at an impressive $161.8 million.

To complicate things further, July 09 has been carved out for the launch of a premium VOD window, which will give the “Helper” community a full seven weeks to move their own Blu-ray copies to an unsuspecting public (or consumers who simply don’t care the source of that shiny new Blu-ray).   

You own the intellectual rights to a product, in this case a film, but cut in a rival studio for a share of the revenue stream — and then turn around and encourage piracy of the same intellectual property — you have to begin to question the reasoning process of this distribution scheme.

As to bonus features, there are 14 deleted and/or extended scenes with optional audio commentary by director Wes Ball and documentary titled Inside the Forbidden Zone: Making Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.