Cars 3

SteelBook Alert: All I Wanna Do Is Zoom-a-Zoom-Zoom-Zoom

I haven’t spent a lot of time talking about SteelBooks in the blog recently, probably because many of the ones released lately have been inflicted with ugly Pop Art designs. In the interest of keeping our readers abreast of products they may wish to preorder, let’s look at some titles that will race toward retailers in the near future.

‘Cars 3’

Available at: Best Buy (2D)
Release date: TBA
Price: $29.99

The movie just opened in theaters and a Blu-ray release date hasn’t even been determined yet, but a SteelBook edition was an inevitability. Every Pixar movie to date has been released in SteelBook form at one time or another.

This one will come through Best Buy in the U.S. Initial indications are that it will be 2D only. There is some possibility that the SteelBook could also be released in the UK with a 3D disc included. Unfortunately, even if that happens, the artwork will remove the movie’s title from the front cover, which is Disney’s very frustrating policy for UK SteelBooks.

Cars 3 SteelBook

Update: Zavvi now lists a ‘Cars 3’ SteelBook with 3D. It’s only available on the retailer’s UK site but not the U.S. site, for some reason.

Available at: Zavvi (3D/2D)
Release date: TBD
Price: £24.99

Cars 3 SteelBook UK

The temp art displays the movie’s title on the front cover, but that will probably change before release.

‘Ghost in the Shell’ (2017)

Available at: Best Buy (2D) / Best Buy (UHD) / Zavvi (3D)
Release date: July 25, 2017 (USA) / August 7, 2017 (UK)
Price: $24.99 (2D), $29.99 (UHD), $32.99 (3D)

The live-action remake of the anime classic was a box office bomb earlier this year. Nevertheless, Universal is banking on anime fanboys and/or people excited to ogle Scarlett Johansson in a form-fitting jumpsuit to pick it up on disc anyway. Identical SteelBooks are offered with three choices of content. Best Buy will have separate 2D Blu-ray and Ultra HD editions. If you want 3D, however, you need to import from the UK – assuming that the preorder opens back up again. Zavvi currently lists the 3D copy as Sold Out, but that isn’t always final.

Ghost in the Shell 2017 SteelBook

Ghost in the Shell 2017 SteelBook interior

‘Power Rangers’

Available at: Target (USA) / Zavvi (UK)
Release date: June 27, 2017 (USA) / July 31,2017 (UK)
Price: $19.99 (Target) / $26.39 (Zavvi)

The ‘Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers’ were a little after my time. I had aged out of them before the toys or old TV show became wildly popular with kids in the 1990s. The big-budget reboot didn’t much appeal to me, but apparently it hit some nostalgic buttons for the target audience.

If you ask me, the SteelBook is kind of an eye sore, but that seems to be fitting for the property.

Power Rangers SteelBook front

Power Rangers SteelBook back

‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’

Available at: Zavvi
Release date: TBA
Price: $32.99

No one needed another ‘Pirates’ movie, except maybe Johnny Depp. The fifth installment to the franchise underperformed at the domestic box office, but did better overseas. For some reason, the movie’s title was changed to ‘Salazar’s Revenge’ in other markets, as if Salazar is a name anyone cared about. This SteelBook art looks decent enough, but it’s clearly marked as subject to change. The final release version will probably be an ugly floating-head montage – or worse, Pop Art.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales SteelBook

10 comments

  1. Bolo

    Whenever I see that harsh high contrast red-black-white look that they have on the ‘Ghost in the Shell’ steelbook I always think I’m looking at the poster for a ‘Hellraiser’ movie or something. They did same for the ‘John Wick 2’ steelbook. The layout design for the ‘Ghost in the Shell’ case is okay and it’s neat in an alternate poster kind of way, but I prefer the regular edition artwork.

      • Bolo

        Sorry, I shouldn’t have specifically said ‘Hellraiser’ when all I meant was that a colour scheme of black and blood red with a few white accents makes me think it’s a horror film.

  2. Josh Zyber
    Author

    Apparently Target will also carry the Power Rangers SteelBook next week, though a price hasn’t been announced yet. I’ve updated the post with a link to that.

  3. DarthTrumpus

    “Zavvi currently lists the 3D copy as Sold Out, but that isn’t always final.”
    I’ve seen this with pretty much every 3D release this year. I’ve had to hunt down every single 3D movie only to find them “Sold Out”. Rogue One, Doctor Strange (this one sold out within an hour on Amazon and took a month to get back in stock), Moana, on and on. In many cases I’ve had to resort to buying from Amazon UK.
    Gee, if they keep selling out, that clearly shows DEMAND. So this whole “consumers have no interest in 3D” and “sales of 3D are way down” seem like total bunk. Maybe sales wouldn’t be down if they actually had adequate supplies. If they are selling out within an hour of being available (Rogue One, Doctor Strange were sold out online everywhere and every store in the Bay Area on release day) then they could sell even MORE if they had more in stock. It’s like retailers decided that they wanted 3D to fail and they’re doing everything it can to make that happen. It’s hard for sales to go up when you don’t have a product available to sell!

  4. Hey Josh, I’m pretty sure ‘Cars 3’ will include the title on the spine. Zavvi has listened to your complaints. The last few Disney discs (Moana, etc.) have an explicit mention on their page ‘This steelbook displays the title on the spine.’

  5. I have kind of stopped doing steelbooks because they rarely have the 3D or 4k. I do see that there is a 4k on here, and a 3D, but it is rare. I also hate that the steelbooks that do come out usually come out months or years after the initial release. So yeah, if I can get a good deal, on release day, with the 3d or 4k, then yeah, i get it, but it is rare that that happens

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