As such, we’ve just shared the new update of our Release Dates & Cover Art section here at The Bits with all the latest Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K UHD cover art and Amazon pre-order links. As always, whenever you order literally anything from Amazon after clicking to them through one of our links you’re helping to support our work here at the site and we appreciate it!
In terms of announcement news today, Universal has set Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia (2025) for Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD release on 12/23, with the Digital release now available. Extras will include The Birth of the Bees: The Making of Bugonia featurette.
Back to the topic of Amazon for a moment, Joachim Rønning’s Tron: Ares (2025) has finally been listed for Blu-ray, DVD, 4K Ultra HD, and 4K Steelbook release on 1/6. Click here, here, and here to see the Blu-ray and 4K pre-order listings.
Down in Australia, Via Vision has set Saw II (2005) and Saw III (2006) for 4K Ultra HD release on 2/25.
Over in Germany, our friends at Turbine have set David Bruckner’s Hellraiser (2022) for 4K Ultra HD Steelbook release on December 11, a 3-disc set that will be available in Steelbook packaging as well as four different Mediabook variants. Each will include Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio, as well as new special features exclusively produced by Turbine.
Also coming to 4K Ultra HD that day from Turbine is Rob Cohen’s Daylight (1996). The remaster and new content was produced by Turbine over a year of collaboration with the director. That fact probably explains why the film’s 4K release was delayed by Kino Lorber Studio Classics earlier this year.
Speaking of Kino Lorber Studio Classics, their 4K release of Roger Donaldson’s Dante’s Peak (1997) has been delayed to 1/13/26 (from the most recent 12/16 street date). So adjust your plans accordingly.
KLSC has also announced a number of new 4K UHD catalog titles in recent days and weeks, including John Guillermin’s Death on the Nile (1978) and Guy Hamilton’s Evil Under the Sun (1982) and The Mirror Crack’d (1980) on 1/6, Michael Winner’s The Mechanic (1972) and Guillermo del Toro’s Mimic (1997) on 1/13, and Hal Ashby’s Let’s Spend the Night Together (1983) and Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Diva (1981) on 1/20. Michael Ritchie’s The Island (1980) is also “coming soon” to 4K UHD.
On Blu-ray, the label has revealed that Iain Softley’s K-PAX (2001) and Tod Williams’ The Door in the Floor (2004) are coming on 1/6, followed by George Marshall’s Hold That Blonde! (1945) and Sydney Pollack’s Sabrina (1995) on 1/13, the Boulting Brothers’ Man in a Cocked Hat (1959), Pete Walker’s The Flesh and Blood Show (1972), Henri Verneuil’s The Vultures (1984), and the Dead of Night (1945) anthology on 1/20, and Stephen Frears’ The Hi-Lo Country (1998) on 2/3. Meanwhile, Jeremy Kagan’s Scott Joplin (1977) is coming in February as well. And Howard Zieff’s House Calls (1978), William Richert’s A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988), and Richard Quine’s The Prisoner of Zenda (1979) are all coming soon.
Over in the UK, Eureka! has set a Zen & Sword: The Miyaoto Musashi at Toei Blu-ray box set for release on February 23, featuring five newly 4K-restored films from the legendary Japanese studio, including Miyamoto Musashi (1961), Miyamoto Musashi II: Showdown at Hannyazaka Heights (1962), Miyamoto Musashi III: Birth of the Two Sword Style (1963), Miyamoto Musashi IV: Duel at Ichijyo-Ji (1964), and Miyamoto Musashi V: Duel at Ganryu Island (1965).
Also in the UK, Radiance Films has announced their March slate, which is set to include the Underworld Chronicles: Three Yakuza Fables by Takashi Miike box set (featuring Fudoh: The Next Generation, Agitator, and Deadly Outlaw: Rekka), Grzegorz Krolikiewicz’s The Dancing Hawk (1978), and Larry Cohen’s Special Effects (1984) on Blu-ray on March 23, along with Ivan Passer’s Cutter’s Way (1981) in 4K Ultra HD that same day.
And for music fans, Mercury Studios is releasing Purpose: Celebrating 30 Years of the Classic Albums Seal I and Seal II on separate Blu-ray+CD and 4K Ultra HD+Blu-ray combo editions on 2/13.
A couple of other items of note this afternoon…
The Warner Archive Collection has informed us that there’s a delay in shipping copies of their new Tom & Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology Blu-ray from pretty much all sources including Amazon. Word is that Allied Vaughn is working hard to get more product into distribution. But it’s very important that you don’t start canceling your orders, because that would have a hugely negative impact on Warner Archive’s business and their ability to keep releasing great titles.
On the same note, many people have reported a delay in shipping 4K Ultra HD copies of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999) from Criterion. Those who ordered from Criterion directly experienced a brief delay, and many of those who’ve ordered the title from Amazon and elsewhere are also still waiting for product.
This is a common problem that the whole industry is dealing with right now: Studios and boutique labels are struggling to replicate enough Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD product to meet consumer demand. There are lots of reasons for this, but the key one is that there was a period of several years there (starting in about 2017) where studios were pulling back from physical media as they rushed to launch digital streaming services. When that happened, a number of replication plants were closed and those that remained open reduced the number of replication lines they maintained to cut costs.
But when the studios subsequently discovered that they were losing money on streaming, they realized they had to pivot back to physical media again. And this happened just as the boutique labels were licensing more and more titles. So now there simply isn’t enough replication capacity to meet demand. (100GB disc replication capacity is even more strained, which is why some studios have been using 66GB discs for 4K releases instead whenever possible.)
It may surprise you to know that there are no major replication plants here in the States doing Blu-ray and 4K discs—there’s essentially only one major plant in all of North America, and it’s located in Mexico. (Three more plants are located in Europe.) Add the economic chaos that started with COVID, not to mention the more recent tariffs, and you begin to see how the home entertainment industry is struggling to meet consumer demand. And all of that chaos means that the replicators are reluctant to invest in new lines and plants. So this is just the world we live in now, at least for the next few years.
I’ve talked about this problem in more depth recently on The Digital Bits Patreon page for our subscribers, so if you’re interested you can find that here and here.
All right, there’s more release news to cover, but I’d say this is a big enough post for one day. So we’ll check back with more here soon.
In the meantime, stay tuned!
- Bill Hunt
(You can follow Bill on social media on Twitter, BlueSky, and Facebook, and also here on Patreon)