Archive for June 26, 2012

After a rather quiet year in which there has been a drought of interesting Blu-ray titles, late September has suddenly emerged as the time in which the heavens open and out pours a flood of must-have discs. Four key titles in particular are set to really strain the disposable incomes of any film fan.

On September 18th comes "Indiana Jones: The Complete Collection" containing all four films, the first three making their high definition debuts. The set is expected to be the biggest catalog box set seller on the market since last year's "Star Wars" complete saga set.

One week later on September 25th comes three major juggernauts. Marvel's "The Avengers" makes its disc debut in various formats and will no doubt break disc sales records as much as the film itself has done at the box-office.

For classic film fans though it's also one hell of a day. There's the "Bond 50" set, a box-set containing all 22 official James Bond films from "Dr. No" through to "Quantum of Solace" and featuring nine key films which haven't made their debut on Blu-ray before including "The Spy Who Loved Me," "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," "You Only Live Twice," "GoldenEye," "Diamonds are Forever," "The Living Daylights," "Octopussy," "Tomorrow Never Dies" and "A View to a Kill".

If that weren't enough Universal is releasing "Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection", a box-set containing fifteen of the master's most famous films - thirteen of which are making their Blu-ray debut. Amongst the titles are some of cinema's greatest works including "Rear Window," "Vertigo," "North by Northwest," "Psycho," "The Birds," "Rope" and "Shadow of a Doubt". If that weren't enough, Blu-rays of both "Strangers on a Train" and "Dial M For Murder" hit two weeks later on October 9th.

Busy month? That's not even taking into account the Blu-ray debut of James Cameron's "Titanic" on September 10th, a flurry of high-profile TV releases, and a few other key smaller film titles like Criterion's release of David Fincher's "The Game" on the 25th as well. Start saving now.

Marvel's "The Avengers" is expected to cross the $600 million U.S. domestic box-office mark today, its 54th day of release, making it only the third film in history to reach that milestone.

It now sits only behind "Avatar" with $760.5 million and "Titanic" with $658.6 million. Though still earning solidly, the final tally is expected to end up around the $630-640 million mark.

Outside the States, the film has raked in $837.9 million thus far - extremely impressive but not as significant a hit as "Avatar" or "Titanic" which took in $2.0 billion and $1.5 billion respectively in foreign markets alone.

In terms of non-US grosses it's currently fourth highest in history behind those two Cameron films and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" which scored $947 million overseas.

With the added domestic total back in though its current worldwide haul stands at a whopping $1.4 billion.