The “Avatar” money train keeps rolling. After racking up $2 billion in worldwide box office receipts, becoming one of the best-selling home video titles when it was released on Earth Day this past April, and with a special edition version and more crappy merchandise coming this fall, James Cameron may need to rent out some locker space at Fort Knox. However, if you’ve been holding off on buying “Avatar” for your home theater, waiting to experience the film in all its three dimensional glory, you’ll be pleased to know the 3D BluRay release is officially on the way. It just may drain your bank account.
TWICE reports (via BluRay.com) that the 3D iteration of “Avatar” will hit stores in December. The catch? It will only be available to people who buy a Panasonic 3D Viera plasma TV. The electronics manufacturer has stuck a deal with 20th Century Fox to be the exclusive launch partner for the disc with the BluRay expected to be available in variety of bundle packages with Panasonic 3D Viera televisions and BluRay players. But wait, do you already own a Panasonic 3D Viera TV? Well the company is going to be gracious enough to offer the disc to those early adopters as well. Full details on the promotion will be revealed later this year.
But if you already own a 3D TV by some other manufacturer (like, say, Samsung who got Cameron to pimp their line of televisions earlier this year) you might be waiting for a while. Though details on how long the exclusivity window will last are not yet known, The Digital Bits believe it could be “as long as a year or more.”
So, how much do one these TVs cost? We took a quick look at some prices if you were to head out to your local electronics store today, a Panasonic Viera 50″ TV would run about about $2500. Granted, there will probably be a fancy pants new line of televisions released in conjunction with the “Avatar” promotion, and perhaps prices will come down slightly, but this thing will still set you back a bit.
No details on if the “Avatar” 3D disc will boast any special features but if the current home video roll-out is anything to go by it will probably be bare bones and then followed by another even more special edition at some point in the future.
