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Fox Bows "Must Have" BD catalog
January 4, 2008

Obviously, the big craaazy news of the day is that Warner exclusively hearts Blu-ray. But Fox deciding to release a slew of BD catalog titles in 2008 should not go unnoticed. The studio has confirmed March street dates for several "Must Have" box office heavyweights, Ice Age (March 4), Independence Day (March 11) and I, Robot (March 11) as described in a Jan. 4 press release unfortunately sent minutes before Warner sent out its own eyes-out-of-sockets release.
Coming earlier in the first quarter from Fox are Man on Fire on Jan. 8, and both Wall Street and Me, Myself and Irene on Feb. 5.
Fox is helping beat back the criticism it got last year when it postponed the release of several catalog titles as it waited for finalization on advanced copy protection technology BD +.
Also newsworthy is that Fox has the confidence to release these titles on Blu-ray. Most retailers will note that if consumers are 'must-having' anying in high-def, it's the new releases. Independence Day and I, Robot seem like they have a good shot of success on shelves, though. They'll likely coincide with the DVD release of another, current Will Smith homerun, I Am Legend. 
Plus, Fox has attached at least one BD-exclusive extra to its catalog slate, an Alien Scavenger Hung game on Independence Day. To date, mostly new releases have emphasized high-def format specific bonus features.

Posted by Susanne Ault on January 4, 2008 | Comments (0)