Buena Vista Worldwide Home Entertainment (BVWHE) today announced the company’s most extensive Blu-ray Disc slate yet, with action-packed and family titles due for release throughout 2007 in North America, Europe and Asia. Showing its continued commitment to the next-generation, high-definition format, the company has selected a wide range of titles, many 50GB, to showcase the new Blu-ray Disc format, from blockbusters and Academy Award®-winning masterpieces, to popular animated movies for the entire family.
Commenting on the announcement, BVWHE President Bob Chapek stated, “Blu-ray is quickly becoming the high-definition standard on the market today and we are very pleased to add this amazing slate of Blu-ray releases that will appeal to our core demographic. With the dual-layer, 50GB discs, the possibilities for exciting new interactive features and additional bonus content are endless.”
The company has already had tremendous success with the first generation of Blu-ray Disc titles such as Eight Below and Dinosaur, and is releasing most new titles on the new dual-layer Blu-ray Discs that features a massive storage capacity of 50GB, enabling the highest caliber encodes, expanded bonus material and exciting new interactive features.
As part of its worldwide release strategy BVWHE will release Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest in all territories May ’07 and Con Air, Crimson Tide and The Rock in all territories beginning June ’07. Cars will also see a worldwide rollout schedule in 2007.
In North America, BVWHE will release Chicken Little and Finding Neverland on March 20; “King Arthur Director’s Cut” and G.I. Jane on April 3; Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest in May; Con Air, Crimson Tide and The Rock on June 8; and Cars, The Recruit and Open Range in Summer ’07.
Europe will see its first Blu-ray Disc titles from BVWHE beginning in March with the release of Eight Below, Chicken Little, Enemy of the State, Flightplan, Gone in Sixty Seconds, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Pearl Harbor, Scary Movie 4, Sky High, Finding Neverland and The Wild. Next up are Dinosaur and “King Arthur Director’s Cut” in April; Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest in May; Bruce Almighty, Con Air, Crimson Tide and The Rock in June; and Cars, Air Force One and Reign of Fire in Summer ’07.
In Asia, BVWHE will release Face Off in March; Chicken Little and The Wild in April; Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Scary Movie 4 in May; and Cars, Con Air, Crimson Tide, The Rock, “King Arthur Director’s Cut,” Air Force One and Starship Troopers in Summer ’07.
Blu-ray Disc is the next-generation optical disc format for high-definition video and high-capacity software applications. A single-layer Blu-ray Disc will hold up to 25GB of data, and a double-layer Blu-ray Disc will hold up to 50GB of data. Blu-ray Disc is supported by the world’s leading consumer electronics, personal computer and gaming companies, and, with seven of eight Hollywood studios releasing their high-definition content on Blu-ray Disc, Blu-ray will deliver the widest variety of high-definition, home entertainment content.
