Let’s start with the good news. Amazon.com has put up an active pre-order for The Lord the Rings Trilogy on Blu-ray Disc complete with pricing and box art. We knew this was coming thanks to Warner revealing a slew of upcoming Blu-ray titles in the terms and conditions of a Blu-ray promotion they are running but are glad to see retailer confirmation nonetheless.
Retail pricing for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy on Blu-ray is set at $99.98 with Amazon pricing pre-orders at $69.99 or $23.33 per film if you want to break it down. View the pre-order page here.
Now the bad news. Amazon has clearly labeled this pre-order as the “theatrical editions” confirming fears of Blu-ray adopters the world over. A new format with larger storage capacity *should* leave ample space for New Line and Warner to include the extended cuts on the first pass. If Amazon’s listing is correct then either that is not the case or evil marketing trolls within Warner are putting in overtime.
I did a little additional digging on Amazon and stumbled upon a placeholder page for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Extended Editions on Blu-ray. Unfortunately this carries little significance yet as Star Wars has had a Blu-ray placeholder since the format first launched. We all understand the likelihood of a Star Wars Blu-ray Disc set showing up this year, but at least with Lord of the Rings the “extended” tag offers a glimmer of hope.
For now all we can do is wait for New Line and Warner to make an official announcement and set the record straight. Door number one will give us the theatrical cuts and nothing else for the time being. Door number two will give us the theatrical and extended cuts likely at different price points. And door number three will prove Amazon made a mistake and one solitary Blu-ray Disc set for The Lord of the Rings to rule them all will emerge.
Don’t be so hasty to rule out door number three as an option. Check out the cover art published on Amazon below. Do you see “theatrical edition” printed anywhere on it?
I vote for door number three.
