Rogue One: A Star Wars Story On DVD And Blu-ray From Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment On Apr. 4

It could be a smart corporate decision that we weren’t really thinking about.   This past week Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment announced Rogue One: A Star Wars Story for DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack release on Apr. 4 … more on that in just a moment.

We’ve been a little critical of Disney for not having all of its mice lined up in the past when a major theatrical release was getting the nod for a move to the home entertainment market place.   And, there has certainly been plenty of evidence that hiccups have taken place … no big deal, but it happens.

But now we are beginning to wonder if the online Disney Store’s (disneystore.com) pattern of jumping ahead of the formal press announcements from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is a planned strategy.   Maybe it is actually a pretty smart corporate policy that looks to maximize revenues.  They have a captive audience for pre-orders already in place (a database of customers), so why not glean that group first before sharing the news with online and big-box retailers?

In any case, the biggest film of 2016 has now been given an Apr. 4 release date, which yields an ARR of 109 days.   The domestic box office haul was an out-of-this-world sum of $528.8 million.   

As to bonus goodies for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, there are 11 production featurettes — “A Rogue Idea,” “Jyn: The Rebel,” “Cassian: The Spy,” “K-2SO: The Droid,” “Baze & Chirrut: Guardians of the Whills,” “Bodhi & Saw: The Pilot and the Revolutionary,” “The Empire,” “Visions of Hope: The Look of Rogue One,” “The Princess and the Governor,” “Epilogue: The Story Continues” and “Rogue Connections.”

Lionsgate Home Entertainment Selects Mar. 28 As The Street Date For 4K Ultra HD • Blu-ray • And DVD Editions Of Writer/Director Peter Berg’s Patriots Day

Lionsgate Home Entertainment has placed the CBS Films production of writer/director Peter Berg’s Patriots Day on its release calendar for delivery as DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack editions on Mar. 28.

It joins the previously announced release of filmmaker Mike Mills’ 20^th Century Women on that date, and with Disney selecting Apr. 4 as the street date for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the next available window for Lionsgate’s La La Land looks to be Apr. 11.

The ARR for Patriots Day works out to 95 days and ticket sales were a little disappointing at just $31.5 million.  

The theatrical group for Lionsgate selected a platform release strategy of just seven screens during the Christmas through New Years period (3 full weeks) and then elected to widen it out to just over 3,000 screens in mid-January.   By that time the bloom was off of the rose (so to speak).

More and more it appears that traditional theatrical release strategies of the past are falling victim to digital and on-demand platforms — consumable media on an “eye-squint” machine (what’s the point of widescreen hi-def in that viewing environment).   

There is some pretty compelling anecdotal evidence that consumers prone to this type of entertainment consumption are more than ready to skip ahead to digital platforms if they can’t get to a theatrical screening of any particular film during its opening weekend.   If Patriots Day is only playing in seven venues nationwide during the first three weeks of its theatrical run, it seems likely that the low attention span segments of the potential audience have already moved on if their entertainment needs can’t filled in the here and now.

There were several examples over the holiday period that absolutely tanked with the platform theatrical release strategy.   So it is go-wide out the gate or find another date if all of the venues (screens) are spoken for … that looks like the dynamics of the market place going forward.

In any case, Lionsgate Home Entertainment will have no trouble finding an audience for this story about the cowardly terrorists who set off two pressure-cooker bombs during the running of the Boston Marathon on Apr. 15, 2013, killing three innocent bystanders and maiming an additional 17 (plus close to 300 other injured).   They subsequently murdered Sean A. Collier (played in the film by Jake Picking), an MIT police officer, before being hunted down.

The film itself focuses on the activities of a “composite” character named Sergeant Tommy Saunders (played by Mark Wahlberg) of the Boston Police Department, who represents a number of Boston’s finest who were involved in the series of events that began on the day of the bombing and continued up to the capture of the surviving terrorist four days later. 

Another important character in the film is Watertown Police Department Sergeant Jeffrey    In a number of published interviews with Pugliese, he confirms that his scenes involving the Watertown shootout with the brothers are extremely accurate (he was on the set with filmmaker Peter Berg during the production).  So too is the carjacking sequence involving Dun Meng (played by Jimmy O. Yang).

Pugliese (played by J.K. Simmons), who is a real person.

Bonus features common to all release SKUs are the featurettes titled “Boston Strong: 3 True Stories of Courage” and “Researching the Day.”   Exclusive to the Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack editions of Patriots Day are a two-part presentation of “Actors Meet Real-Life Counterparts” and three additional featurettes — “The Boston Bond: Recounting the Tale,” “The Real Patriots: The Local Heroes' Stories” and “The Cast Remembers.”

Wild Eye Releasing Tabs Mar. 18 For The DVD Debut Of Director Christopher James Miller’s Mortuary Massacre

Wild Eye Releasing, with sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has tabbed Mar. 28 as the DVD debut date for director Christopher James Miller’s Mortuary Massacre, his latest horror anthology featuring the continuing exploits of Detective Giger (Todd Brown).

Chris Miller’s unique creation, Detective Giger, is always getting the short end of the stick … if it’s not time jumping (2035: Forbidden Dimensions), it’s the world of the occult (Carrion).   

Well, we can safely report that with Mortuary Massacre it is not getting any better as this time he has not one, but a trio of bloody cases to investigate … and all the information he has to work with comes courtesy of the local mortician, Mortimer King (played by Carl Crew).

Ariztical Entertainment Picks Apr. 18 For The DVD Debut Of Writer/Director Michelle Ehlen’s S&M Sally

Ariztical Entertainment announced this past week that writer/director Michelle Ehlen’s award-winning “sexcapade” comedy, S&M Sally, will be making its DVD debut on Apr. 18.

Jill and Jamie are back!   When we last saw them they were winning our hearts in the 2013 comedy Heterosexual Jill, which had Jill testing her newfound non-lesbian status with her “former” partner Jamie and failing miserably.

This time the subject turns to “50 Shades” of sexual exploration when Jamie (Michelle Ehlen) discovers that Jill (Jen McPherson) has been checking out the sex-club scene.   Jamie makes a game effort at being cool, but she is no match for Jill who is always “50 steps” ahead at playing these “games.”

And to compound the merriment, their “straight” couple friends, Lola (Shaela Cook) and David (Scott Keiji Takeda), have gone down the rabbit hole of “polyamory” with a sexual chameleon named Sebastian (Adrian Gonzalez).

Bonus goodies include outtakes, a pair of featurettes — “Behind the Scenes” and “Dungeon Tour” — and the music video from Lynx from Random Order, “Black Lipstick Kiss”

Ruthless Films Sets Two For April DVD Release — Western World (Apr. 11) And The Portal (Apr. 25)

Ruthless Films, LLC, with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, announced this past week that they have scheduled two new film releases for delivery to the DVD market place during the month of April.

First up on Apr. 11 is director Lana Read’s Western World, a blood-soaked Western tale that has U.S. Marshal Moses White (Christopher Rowley) being summoned to the Wyoming hamlet of Dogwood Pass to restore order.   But he soon finds that not is all that it seems.

Mayor Ambrose Taylor (Greg Steele) is a double-dealer that can’t be trusted, the local lawman, Sheriff Tom Ramey (Darrell P. Miller) has a screw loose and the lovely Camille (Amanda Miller) is harboring a secret — a secret passion — that makes her deadlier than her male counterparts.   Pity the Marshal White … getting out of Dogwood Pass alive isn’t looking all that good!

Two weeks later, on Apr. 25, Ruthless Films returns with the DVD debut of director Svend Ploug Johansen’s The Portal, from a script furnished by the prolific Patrick Rea.

A woman sits staring at a blank computer screen, unplugged, and when her friend goes to investigate her odd behavior all hell breaks loose.    

Come and enter the world of one hellish nightmare after another that are born from a portal to another dimension!   Investigate and you are dead.   Look into the vortex and you are gone.

Paramount Home Media Targets Mar. 14 As The Street Date For DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Editions Of Denzel Washington’s Fences

Paramount Home Media has placed Denzel Washington’s film adaptation of the 1987 August Wilson Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Award-winning stage play, Fences, on its home entertainment release calendar for delivery to retailers on Mar. 14.   Both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions will be in the product mix.

The ARR is a quick-to-market 88 days and domestic box office receipts currently total an impressive $53.9 million.

Fences has been nominated Best Picture and Denzel Washington is up for Best Actor laurels (he has won in both the Best Actor — Training Day — and Best Supporting Actor — Glory — categories; plus four additional nominations during his career).    

Viola Davis is competing in the Best Supporting Actress category (this is her third nomination in that category — previous nods include The Help and Doubt) and in one of those Oscar quirks, August Wilson is nominated for his own screenplay (written before his death in 2005) in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. 

The film itself had a checkered path to final production, which included both Washington    Not only is he, Denzel Washington, nominated for Best Actor, but he shares producer credit in the Best Picture category with Todd Black (his first Best Picture nomination … he’s a frequent collaborator with Washington — Antwone Fisher, The Great Debaters, The Equalizer and most-recently, the remake of The Magnificent Seven) and Scott Rudin (his eighth Best Picture nomination … he shared the win with the Coen Brothers for No Country for Old Men).

and Davis winning Tony Awards for their 2010 revival of Wilson’s stage play.

Bonus goodies, which are limited to the Blu-ray SKU, including five production featurettes — “Expanding the Audience: From Stage to Screen,” “The Company of Fences,” “Building Fences: Denzel Washington,” “Playing the Part: Rose Maxson” and “August Wilson’s Hill District.”

Also added to the release calendar this past week — for DVD delivery on Apr. 18 — is the massive, and we mean MASSIVE, 72-disc collection of Hawaii Five-O: The Complete Original Series (all 281 episodes), starring Jack Lord, James MacArthur and Kam Fong.

Wolfe Sets May 2 For The DVD Debut Of Writer/Director Phillip Irwin Cooper’s Counting for Thunder

You’ve done it, certainly as a kid, just to see if it were true.   The lighting flashes and the count begins, “one hip-po-pot-amus, two hip-po-pot-amus … five hip-po-pot-amus” and then the thunder (wow, that was close, just one mile away).

This counting exercise between the lightning and thunder serves as a wonderful metaphor for writer/director Phillip Irwin Cooper’s award-winning film, Counting for Thunder.   First the lightning — that bright flash of light — as events in one’s life reach a crossroads, and then follows the anticipation of what comes next … the thunder!

Wolfe announce this past week that Counting for Thunder will be making its DVD debut on May 2.

This autobiographical tale introduces us to Phillip Stalworth (Cooper), a wannabe actor out in Hollywood, who is in a relationship that’s going nowhere — as is his career — when he gets some bad news from back home in Alabama.   His mom (played by Mariette Hartley) has stage four cancer … he packs it in and heads home.   There’s your lightning.

Based on Cooper’s own experiences — a three-year stint back home in Alabama during this particular family emergency — brings a certain intimacy with the material.   He speaks directly to you (the audience) in his narrative, which really doesn’t break the fourth wall, but it is close enough.   You are with him in spirits and it works … you can’t help but take a liking to him as you join him on this life-altering journey back home.

Not only is Counting for Thunder blessed with a marvelous script (real-life can be like), but the film boasts production values well-beyond its 2014 Kickstarter.com origins.   In addition to Emmy-winner Mariette Hartley playing the role of his mother, Cooper also landed John Heard as his father, Alison Elliott (The Spitfire Grill, Birth and most recently in 20th Century Women) as his sister and Peter Stebbings (K-19: The Widowmaker, Re-Generation, and as Cardinal De Luca in The Borgias and as Alvin in The Listener television series) as an “old” acquaintance whose friendship brings more “thunder” to his life.

Counting for Thunder is an excellent slice-of-life tale that is well-worth discovering come May 2.