Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment Locks Into June 24 As The Street Date For The Full-Spread Physical Media Launch Of Director Jared Hess' A Minecraft Movie

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment has made it official.   Director Jared Hess’ blockbuster theatrical hit, A Mindcraft Movie, will get a full-spread physical media launch on June 24.

The ARR works out to 81 days and the domestic box office haul currently stands at an impressive $400.5 million.

Planned for distribution are stand-alone DVD and Blu-ray editions, plus two 4K Ultra HD selections — 4K Ultra HD only or a limited edition 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack SteelBook.

On the downside, the premium VOD window arrives on May 13, which will give the “Helper” community (pirates, bootleggers … call them what you will) 42 days to peddle their own Blu-ray editions of A Mindcraft Movie.

Bonus features, which are limited to the 4K Ultra and Blu-ray purchasing options, include five production featurettes — “Building the World of Minecraft: Block Party,” “Creepers, Zombies and Endermen Oh My!,” “A Minecraft Movie: Block Beats,” “A Minecraft Movie: Pixel Pals” and “Marlene + Nitwit.”

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Tabs June 24 As The Street Date For The Full-Spread Physical Media Rollout Of Director Marc Webb's Snow White

One can only imagine Louis B. Mayer’s reaction to the media stunts pulled by Rachel Zegler with respect to her starring role in the live-action remake of Snow White.   She’d never work in Hollywood again (O.K., maybe over on Poverty Row)!

The late Roger Corman could have made one hundred commercial films (or more) with what Walt Disney Studios plowed into this turkey.   But once things went south with director Marc Webb’s Snow White there was no turning back.

Each group within the studio was handed the task of salvaging what they could.   Those in charge of theatrical distribution managed to generate $86.1 million in ticket sales during the film’s domestic theatrical run.

Now comes the home entertainment challenge … what can you generate in physical media sales to help offset the red ink?   The street date for the full-spread launch of Snow White will be June 24.   This yields an ARR of 95 days.

Planned for distribution are Combo Pack editions for both the 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray) and Blu-ray (with DVD) formats, plus a stand-alone DVD purchasing option.

Physical media competition from the online pirate community — what we call “Helpers” — begins on May 13 with the opening of the Premium VOD window.   This means that Blu-ray editions (the format of choice for its bandwidth) will be in the marketplace six full weeks before the arrival of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment’s legitimate versions.

Bonus nuggets, which will be limited to the 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray editions, include a “Sing Along” viewing option, deleted scenes, a blooper reel and a trio of featurettes — “Fearless, Fair, Brave and True: The Making of Snow White,” “Merry Tunes” and “Fairy Tale Fashion.”

Criterion Collection Announces July Film Restoration Slate Featuring Five New 4K Ultra HD Editions (Eight Films In All) • Toplined By Director Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowledge On July 22

The Criterion Collection will be delivering five new 4K Ultra HD releases (eight films in all) during the month of July and, as always, it is a subjective call as to what is the leader of the pack is … everyone has their favorites.

Indeed, you have one from Kubrick, that will be high on many lists.   Criterion also has the Truffaut collection featuring the two decades-long adventures of Antoine Doinel (as played by Jean-Pierre Leaud) … that is certainly a very worthy candidate.

However, we are going with director Mick Nichols’ 1971 film release of Carnal Knowledge as the leading 4K Ultra HD title among Criterion’s July parade of new film restorations.
Based on an unproduced stage play by playwright and Pulitzer Prize-winner cartoonist Jules Feiffer, the twenty-year sexual escapades of ill-fitted college pals — played by Jack Nicholson and folk artist Art Garfunkel — is at the core of the film.  However it is the cast that sparks the interest all these years later.

In addition to Nicholson and Garfunkel, Carnal Knowledge features performances by Ann-Margret (Oscar-nominated in the Best Support Actress category), Candice Bergen, Cynthia O’Neal, Rita Moreno and Carol Kane in her film debut.

The film actually sparked a series of court battles that took three years to play out.  The Supreme Court finally ruled in 1974 that Carnal Knowledge was not obscene, long after the film had play out theatrically and moved on to the repertory universe.   A little film called Deep Throat reset all the rules anyway.

Bonus features for this 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack include a newly-minted commentary from playwright Neil LaBute (The Shape of Things, Some Girl(s), In the Company of Men), video sessions with Nichols’ biographer Mark Harris (“Mike Nichols: A Life”) and film critic Dana Stevens, film-editing historian Bobbie O’Steen and (archival) Nichols in conversation with fellow filmmaker Jason Reitman.

As to other new 4K Ultra HD entries from Criterion during the month of July, we begin with director Fritz Lang’s 1953 film noir triumph, The Big Heat (July 1, with commentary … also available on Blu-ray); Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 film, Barry Lyndon, arrives on July 8; the four-film collection titled The Adventures of Antoine Doinel features auteur filmmaker Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Broad and Love on the Run (July 15 … also available on Blu-ray) and finally director Kenneth Lonegran’s 2000 film release titled You Can Count on Me will be available on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD for the first time on July 22.

Arrow Video Preps July Release Slate Toplined By 4K Ultra HD Editions Of Cobra (July 22) And The Stuff (Also July 22)

Arrow Video, with MVD Entertainment Group providing domestic sales and distribution support, will be loading up on new 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray titles during the month of July.

Do you — or did you back then when the film opened — notice anything about the casting in Cobra (making its 4K Ultra HD debut on July 22), a film written by and starring Sylvester Stallone?   

Back in 1986 (Memorial Day opening as the kickoff to the summer season), when the film opened theatrically, Stallone did a series of consumer press interviews in which he revealed that his screen adaption of Paula Gosling’s 1974 novel titled “A Running Duck,” was a tribute to Clint Eastwood and his Dirty Harry persona. 

To enforce that, both Reni Santoni (Eastwood’s partner in Dirty Harry) and Andrew Robinson (as Scorpio, the villain in Dirty Harry) were cast in leading roles.

Adding to this “family reunion” nature of the film’s production is that the direction was by George Cosmatos (the previous year Stallone and Cosmatos teamed for Rambo: First Blood Part II) and Brigitte Nielsen (who plays Ingrid, a key witness and Stallone’s love-interest), was married to Stallone at the time and co-starred in the 1985 release of Rocky IV. 

Critics at the time savaged the film, but Stallone had the last laugh as audiences loved it. 

This new 4K restoration from Arrow Films is from the original 35mm negative. 

As to bonus goodies, there are three commentary options.   The first is the archived 1998 commentary from director Cosmatos, while the other two are newly prepared and feature film critic and novelist Kim Newman, who is teamed with film journalist Nick de Semlyen, and film scholars Josh Nelson and Martyn Pedler join forces for the second.

Interesting, Arrow is including the television cut of the film (which has a number of edits and features previously unseen footage).

There are three newly-minted featurettes — “Slashing the Night Away,” “Dark Glasses, Violence & Robots” and “Dark Glasses, Violence & Robots”— and a half-dozen archival featurettes — “Stalking and Slashing,” “Meet the Disease,” “Feel the Heat,” “Double Crossed,” “A Work of Art” and “The Making of Cobra.”

Next up in July on the 4K front is Arrow Video’s 4K restoration (from the original 35mm camera negative) of writer/director Larry Cohen’s 1985 biting sci-fi satire on consumerism, The Stuff (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack on July 22).

You have to wonder if Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. ever saw The Stuff and if so, did it start him on the path of questioning everything that is in our food?   Regardless, The Stuff neatly foreshadows the horrors of consumption of “popular” products that are actually making you sick (did you ever look the contents of “the stuff” you buy at the supermarket these days?) … “Are you eating it, or is it eating you?”

The Stuff was the second tag-team of filmmaker Larry Cohen with actor Michael Moriarty, they delivered the 1982 genre gem, Q: The Winged Serpent … and then would join forces again in 1987 for both It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive (also starring Karen Black) and A Return to Salem’s Lot.

There are two viewing options.   The 4K is of the theatrical release, while the companion Blu-ray features a pre-release version of the film, which includes roughly 30 minutes worth of footage culled from the final theatrical cut.

Bonus goodies kick off with the archive commentary of the late filmmaker and the newly-prepared commentary by writers and critics David Flint and Adrian Smith. 

Also included are two of documentary filmmaker Calum Waddell’s feature-length films related to the life and times of Larry Cohen — from 2014, Can’t Get Enough of the Stuff: Making Larry Cohen’s Classic Creature Feature, and the following year, 42nd Street Memories: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Notorious Street.

Between the theatrical cut and the pre-release cut of the film, plus the two Waddell documentaries, you are actually get four feature films in this one 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack from Arrow Video.

There is also the newly-prepared featurette titled “Enough is Never Enough” included with the 4K Ultra HD releases of The Stuff.

On the Blu-ray release front from Arrow Video in July look for the 2K restoration (from a 4K scan of the original 35mm negative) of director Jon Steven Ward’s 2000 film release of Lovers Lane (July 8, includes commentary).

Also arriving on July 8 is Japanese filmmaker Toto Murakawa’s Game Trilogy, featuring The Most Dangerous Game, The Killing Game and The Execution Game.   Commentary is included on all three films … presented in Japanese with English subtitles. 

On July 15, writer/director Chris Skotchdopole’s home invasion thriller, Crumb Catcher, makes its Blu-ray debut (includes commentary, two short films — Camp Out and The Egg and the Hatchet — and a making-of featurette).

On the same date, July 15, director Basil Dearden’s 1969 film release of The Assassination Bureau makes it to Blu-ray.   Includes commentary and the extended featurette titled “Right Film, Wrong Time.”

July 22 brings The Nightwatch Collection to Blu-ray.   This is the double feature of Nightwatch (1994) and Nightwatch: Demons are Forever (2023) … presented in Danish with English subtitles (commentary and more).

Closing out the month on July 22 are Warriors Two and Hand of Death … both feature commentary and English-dubbed or Mandarin (with English subtitles) viewing options.