UPDATED: 'Avatar' Extended Edition Ready to Hit Theaters in August
Expect the DVD and Blu-ray release in November
UPDATE: I have added four new paragraphs to the bottom of this article with updates to the questions I sent Fox regarding this re-release.
We already knew this was coming, but now 20th Century Fox has announced a date and August 27 will mark the return of James Cameron's Avatar to Digital 3D and IMAX 3D theaters and it comes with more than eight minutes of new footage included.
The return has been dubbed Avatar: Special Edition, which is basically to say this is the version consumers will be able to buy in the special edition DVD and Blu-ray release later this year. When it was made known this version would be returning to theaters in August it was expected to be an additional six minutes, but obviously that has now grown to beyond eight minutes.
Commenting on the new release James Cameron was quoted in the press release saying, "Audiences repeatedly told me they wanted more of Pandora, and wished they could have stayed there longer. So we’re making that possible. Avatar: Special Edition will be exclusively in 3D, and will have eight minutes of never before seen footage, including new creatures and action scenes. Whether you already love the movie, or you've never seen it, with this Special Edition, you'll be seeing it like never before."
The release is referred to as a "limited engagement" but there is no telling just how limited this will be. Back in April we were told to expect the "Ultimate Edition" of Avatar on DVD and Blu-ray, with the additional footage, in November. However, calling this edition "ultimate" may not be entirely correct as last February a "Wall Street Journal" article discussing the film said, "A spokesman for Fox Home Entertainment said on Thursday night that the '3D is in the conceptual stage and Avatar will not be out on 3D Blu-ray in November.'" 3D televisions and Blu-ray releases are on the market right now, but I still expect you'll be waiting until 2011 if you want to watch Avatar in 3D at home.
As far as 3D theaters go during the August timeframe Despicable Me (7/9) and Cats and Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore (7/30) will be the only possible July carryovers and August has Step Up 3D (8/6) and Piranha 3D (8/27) with Resident Evil: Afterlife (9/10) being the first 3D release of September.
UPDATES: Chris Petrikin, Fox Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications, got back to me with some answers to my questions. As for how long the re-release will be in theaters he says he's not sure, "it could be longer in some territories than others, and IMAX has specific windows for films… [it] could play just a couple weeks to whenever."
The number of theaters is also currently up in the air, which I expected, but he says it "should be few hundred in US and obviously many more internationally." International release dates can be found here.
As for whether or not this new release will bring additional dollars to the original box-office totals, Petrikin told me "the grosses do get added to existing grosses." As of right now Avatar is the #1 film of all-time in both domestic and worldwide charts with over $749 million domestically and nearly $2 billion from foreign markets. How high will it go?
In terms of the November DVD and Blu-ray release he gave me the following quote from the Fox Home Entertainment division: "As previously announced, James Cameron, Jon Landau and team are working on a collector's edition Blu-ray and DVD for November (2D). There are no new updates beyond that at this point."
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Does anyone actually care about this movie enough to pay more money for eight minutes of footage? I saw the first version in theaters, and it was decent. I'm not gonna see this one. I didn't even buy the first version on DVD, so there's no way I'm gonna buy any type of ultimate edition.
It was a decent sci-fi flick, but Mr. Cameron's ego seems to think its the greatest movie ever made. I really hope that movie audiences decide to take his "King of the World" mentality down a notch by not seeing this in theaters again.
Yes, members of the Martian Army, I do care about "8 Extra Minutes". Yes, I will be in line to see this movie on August 27th and yes I feel like the biggest nerd in the entire world for feeling this way.
What can I say? This is what happens when James Cameron doesn't direct a real movie for 12-frickin-years!!!!!
This movie rocked! and will contiue to rock on August 27th and this holiday season when the UBER-EPIC-DELUXE-SPECIAL-EDITION-DVD is finally unleashed upon the public.
……someone help me please :-)
@Martian Army – given how much it's made I think it's a little too late to worry about him being 'taken down a notch' over a re-release of what was arguably a highly popular film.
It's nowhere near the first film to be re-released in theatres anyway and it's being done for the same reason nearly all the others were.
Likely demand.
By all means don't go and see it if you don't want to – but don't imagine anyone at FOX (or Cameron) will notice. Their all too busy adding up the money mountain it brought in.
@The Jackal – yes, I found it a perfectly well made blockbuster (if not quite the best movie ever made in the whole history of the world!!) and Cameron did in fact demonstrate as a director that he's a lot better at directing these kinds of films than most of the competition that cropped up in his absence (yep, I'm looking at you Micheal Bay). There's undoubtedly a lot of reasons perhaps not to like him personally (and his films but you can say that about a lot of directors – yep, still looking at you Bay!) but quite clearly he delivers films that mainstream audiences find a connection with and his box-office bears that out.
That said, while I will buy the extended version on Blu-Ray, I probably won't intentionally bother to see it in theatres. But I wouldn't completely rule it out either. Depends what else is playing around the time.
For me, if I end up going it would be to see it on the big screen in 3D again, rather than for the extra 8 minutes, which is just an added incentive as I see it. I only saw Avatar once, in theaters (and not the greatest theater either, as I was on vacation at the time and went with my brother to a theater we knew nothing about.) I haven't watched or picked up the blu ray, but I'll probably get the one that comes out near Christmas.
Just last week I watched "Singin' in the Rain" on the big screen at a great campus theater, and it was a good reminder of how much fun it is to see something that I normally would only get to see on television in its original format.
So often we criticize actors, directors, producers, & studios on this website for making movies that fail to earn a reasonable revenue versus their budget. Whether we like Avatar or not, whether we like James Cameron or not, he managed to once again develop a movie that *moved* a lot of people. Quite simply, there is no other way to explain Avatar's box office. We must give him credit for what he accomplished – there is no fairness otherwise.
Some people belittle his work, some belittle him, and some belittle those who enjoy his movies. Box office failure brings its set of detractors; box office success brings another set.
There should be no harsh judgement for directors who make movies for the people who actually buy tickets because there are plenty of other directors who make movies just for people who don't…. The world is plenty big enough.
Personally, I saw the movie twice. The Blue-ray looks lovely, but I am waiting for the extended edition before I chose to buy it.
I am gona see it again i love james cameron movies aliens still is my favorite alien movie and yes i think avatar is the best movie in the world at the moment
The original needs to reach a close date soon. These people are SO greedy!
Ugh, who cares, there was nothing original about it at all. It's Dances with Wolves WITH Blue People.
Yes, but the problem of getting into the question of 'originality' is that in Hollywood for the most part it's a long forgotten component.
I'm sorry, but while it certainly didn't offer anything radically new in terms of it's story, you can point that finger at 90% of the blockbuster output of the last few years.
Not even at the blockbusters either. The same stories are often retold time and again and no-one bats an eyelid. How many romantic comedies or love stories can one predict the ending to before you even sit in your seat in the cinema? How many horror movies repeat the same structure? How many comedies recycle fart and bodily function jokes? (let's ask Adam Sandler for the answer to that one).
The only thing that makes it different was the level of success it had at the box-office. That's what some people don't like.
But if it had happened to a film they DID like – you can bet it would be a quite different story coming from a few of them.
Very agree with Winchester!!!!!!!
It's hard to find originality these days about movies.
Avatar was fantastic entertainment, and pure entertaining at cinema…
And the box office had proven it globally.
I love Avatar, I think it was great! And it should won Best Picture back at the Oscar. But that just personal opinion, but I believe most of people out there agree with me.
Regards from Indonesia
No, most people do not agree with you, especially the people who actually pay attention to the Oscars. Most of those moviegoers agree that Avatar had no business being nominated for Best Picture.
However, what is MY personal opinion is that The Hurt Locker (which I saw after the win) was very underwhelming and didn't deserve it either. Up wasn't even Pixar's best animated movie so I don't think that one deserved it either. The Blind Side was a Lifetime movie made for the screen and although not bad, it was a typically average sports drama at best.
The nominees should have been
• (500) Days of Summer
• In the Loop
• Inglourious Basterds
• District 9
• Star Trek
• A Serious Man
• An Education
• Precious
• The Hangover
• Two Lovers
A much better collection of the best movies in American cinema last year.
Here's what it should have been:
-District 9
-Precious
-A Serious Man
-Star Trek
-Inglourious Basterds (winner)
-Invictus
-An Education
-Up in the Air
-Moon
-Avatar
Avatar only deserved to be nominated because it was such a worldwide phenomenon. The Hurt Locker had no business being nominated let alone winning. There is only one reason why it won the top two awards. You all know it.
NO.
(500) Days of Summer
District 9
An Education WINNER
The Hurt Locker WINNER
Precious
Up in the Air
Up
Duplicity
Crazy Heart
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
A Serious Man
Yes, 11.
Slumdog Millionaire was a better movie. As was The Dark Knight and ESPECIALLY The Hurt Locker.
That date (8/27) gives them 2 weeks in IMAX until Resident Evil: Afterlife takes over. But if it's as successful as some think, it will be around longer on the digital 3D screens. I wouldn't be surprised if it creeps into the top 10 when it re-opens. There are plenty of people who either missed it the first time around, or want to see it again on a big theater screen, or want to see what some say is the only 3D film worth seeing in 3D.
Yes, what I meant was that between Hurt Locker and Avatar (as it's come down between the two before), Avatar should won (again, this is just my personal opinion. And here in Indonesia, most of people were rooting for Avatar to win.
Anyway, I'm going to catch it again once it re-released for the last time and see what is the 8 minute fuzz all about.
Regards from Indonesia
I want to see it one more time in 3D IMAX. It's the only good 3D presentation I've seen (NOTE: only the IMAX was good; 3D on a regular screen, even Avatar, was still crap, and 4 of the 6 times I saw it in theaters was 2D), and also I love the movie itself. I'm willing to pay $15 for one more time on the big screen.
Weirdly, I will not be buying Avatar on Blue-Ray or DVD, but I will be going to see it in theaters again. IMO, the movie is too one dimensional to stand up to repeated home viewing, but it's an awesome spectacle in the theater.
I totally agree with Mfan. Avatar was James Cameron's weakest piece, story-wise, but it was a phenomenal viewing experience unlike anything I've ever seen. That's what a lot of people aren't getting. Also, the CG work on the Na'vi was a true breakthrough in that technology.
James Cameron is a money whore!
Just because he's going to earn at least $350 million from Avatar……..lol!
(According to today's Deadline exclusive).
ohh god i didnt like this movie … why are they doing this again !!!
I'll wait until November for the special edition. That should have this director's cut. If it doesn't, they'll be going for a triple dip.
When Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Rings was re-released as a special extended edition dvd, "Peter Jackson extended the movie by more than 30 minutes" a quote from the dvd booklet.
When Steve Weintraub interviewed Sam Worthington, Sam said: "I think the first cut I saw was about six hours long".
Avatar is 2 hrs 42 minutes now. My question: Why not a 4 hour extended edition?
Hey man, as far as original cuts running six hours, most of the original cuts that I have seen run almost that long. Basically in a first rough cut, all of the b-roll is included as well the entire running time of a scene. By entire running time I mean from when camera starts to 'cut'. It gives the creatives the ability to look at expressions and cut aways that aren't always there during dialogue.
I'm sure that Worthington was being slightly sarcastic. It's not normal for an actor to see an original rough cut. I bet he saw something in the 3 hour range, which can seriously feel like forever.
-wil
The film made me cry, im man enough to say it! but i wont be returning to the cinema for 8mins. I might sell my bluray and buy the extended edition. Extended editions p*** me off, if it was that good for an extended edition then why wasn't it in there in the first place??
Answer: MONEY!