Walt Disney Home Entertainment Australia released its upcoming home entertainment schedule to the press today, and some of the items on there were a little surprising. Iron Man 3 has only just been released to Australian cinemas, and is yet to be seen on US screens, but Disney already have it pegged for a 28 August 2013 release on DVD and Blu-ray here in Australia.
Mirroring The Avengers strategy, Iron Man 3 opened around the world over a week ahead of the US, already earning it close to $200 million according to BoxOfficeMojo. This puts it around $15 million ahead of The Avengers at the same time last year, and if patterns hold then this will almost certainly rake in over $1 billion around the world. Our full review can be found here.
One pattern we hope doesn’t get repeated is the lack of bonus features on the Australian Blu-ray release. Although The Avengers was released in Australia well ahead of its US counterpart, key commentaries and documentaries were completely absent from the local release. Fingers and toes crossed that this mistake is not made again, although it certainly won’t slow down casual buyers. That US DVD/Blu-ray should be out late September if history is a guide.
On the long stretch, Thor: The Dark World has a “February TBC” release date. It’s due out in Australian cinemas 31 October 2013, which gives it the standard Disney “four month gap”. Naturally, no word on bonus features for either title, but we are secretly hoping for the Chinese cut/alternate scenes to be present.
Of other interest might be The Lone Ranger (30 October), The Little Mermaid 3D (3 September) and Monsters University (13 November).
These dates are all subject to change without notice, of course, so check back here when we have the full press release.
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