Why you shouldn’t buy ‘Avatar’ on Blu-Ray…yet!

Get ready to get royally screwed – 3 times – by James Cameron. On April 22nd, Earth Day, 20th Century Fox and James Cameron will release Avatar on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Everyone who didn’t see in theaters is anxious to see what all the fuss was about. How great was the 3D experience? Did it revolutionize the way we see films? All those questions will NOT be answered nor seen in the upcoming DVD release.

Why? Because the smart marketing people at Fox will be releasing 3 versions of the film between now and next year.

Here’s the breakdown of what you should expect for all 3 editions:

– On April 22, Best Buy and the rest of the DVD chains will be renting and selling the bare and bones edition, which essentially contains only the 2D movie. No special features, no menus, no trailers, no bonus features at all. According to Cameron, they wanted to use every available bit of information on the disc to preserve the visual and audio quality of the film.

– The second version will be released in November. They’re calling it ‘The Ultimate Edition,’ which will drop after the theatrical re-release of Avatar in 3D with an extra 20 to 40 minutes of deleted footage and extra features.

– And lastly, a third version will drop in 3D for 2011 as a 3 disc set, along with all the bells and whistles your blue Avatar self can imagine. The idea is that by then, more consumers are expected to have 3-D televisions in their homes.

So with all this information we just researched for you, why would you buy the upcoming Avatar blu-ray movie, if you can see the re-release of Avatar, with additional content and in the best possible 3D at theaters, then have the option to also buy the special edition in November?

What we want you to avoid is to have to pay over $100 for the same dvd movie. It makes Cameron richer and you poorer. Doesn’t he already have enough money? Isn’t the movie already the highest grossing in history, destroying Titanic’s record from what was thought to be utterly impossible! Don’t buy into the marketing ploy that some marketer from Fox came up with to exploit you. Just wait a few months and get a much superior release for your hard earned money.

And for those of you that don’t care buying it, but streaming it via Netflix on your big 50 inch LED screen, with your high speed FIOS internet, get ready to wait 28 days to see Avatar, May 20th to be exact, after its April 22nd release. This was part of a deal just signed between Netflix and Fox and Universal Pictures. So why would Netflix succumb to this deal? More inventory at a discounted price and an expanded number of titles it can stream directly to customers. In exchange to have Blockbuster sell first, Netflix, for the first time, will stream shows like 24 under the new pact. The company seems to be calculating that video-on-demand will become a bigger part of its business in the future, making any loss of revenue due to rental delays negligible.

So there you go folks. Be a wise and savvy consumer and don’t let yourself be taken for a ride.