'Avatar' DVD/Blu-ray invades on Earth Day

Posted Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 10:42 AM Central

by John Couture

A couple of weeks ago James Cameron unintentionally let the Na'vi out of the bag when he quipped that his latest box office record holder, Avatar, was going to be released on Earth Day. Understandably, Fox moved quickly to protect its box office receipts and clamped down on sites like ours from confirming this date.

Today, Fox officially lifted the gag order and we are happy to confirm the world's worst kept secret. Avatar will be available this coming Earth Day.

According to the press release, the DVD and Blu-ray will be available on April 22, but the specific content details were lacking. We do know that the DVD will be a one disc offering, while the Blu-ray will be a 2 disc "Blu-ray Combo," which makes me think that it's simply the movie on Blu-ray and DVD in one package.

However, if we go back to the source, Mr. Cameron himself, it's safe to assume that this initial offering will simply be the movie with a more robust special edition coming out later in the year.

"We’ll do the Blu-ray and the standard def DVD April 22nd, that’s our plan as of right now, and that’ll be pretty much bare bones. And then we’ll do a value-added DVD and a 3-D Blu-ray in I think November sometime."

In the Wall Street Journal report, it is acknowledged that Fox downplayed Cameron's remarks for the November release of the 3-D Blu-ray.

However, I think it's safe to say that with the largest grossing movie of all time, this initial release is only the tip of the iceberg.