How many ‘Avatar’ DVDs are you willing to buy?

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I was just as touched as you no doubt were to hear the news that 20th Century Fox has picked Earth Day, April 22, as the release date for the DVD debut of ‘Avatar,’ the James Cameron film that has made more than $2.64 billion in worldwide box office. It’s certainly a nice way to honor the film’s underlying pro-environmental message, even if the decision might drive the global-warming deniers at Fox News a little crazy.

But even though Fox has made untold hundreds of millions from the blockbuster, it seems determined to squeeze a few more hundreds of millions out of our wallets. As it turns out, Fox has craftily decided to milk ‘Avatar’ for every possibly penny, since the debut DVD will be a bare-bones release -- and according to this Reuters story, one of the first major films to appear in home video without any of the regular special features, such as theatrical trailers, deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes footage.

If you want all the extra features, you’ll have to wait until November, when you can buy a second ‘Avatar’ DVD, currently titled the ‘Ultimate Edition,’ which will include all of the fancy stuff. And then, if you have really deep pockets, you can come back to the video store next year and buy a third, 3-D, version of the DVD. This naked attempt to get consumers to buy the same disc twice (or thrice) has been common practice for years in the music business, where new ‘specially remastered editions’ of the same old CD, sometimes weighted down with a few extra ‘never before released’ tracks, have earned record companies the lasting enmity of music fans everywhere, who after being exploited over and over by record companies turned to illegal downloading with barely a twinge of guilt.

Fox has yet to announce a price tag for the stripped-down ‘Avatar’ DVD, although I’m just guessing we won’t be getting a discount in return for all those features that aren’t being included. So what do you think? Is Fox taking us for a ride? Or is it worth it to get your hands on a 2-D ‘Avatar’ DVD as soon as possible? And are you willing to buy the Ultimate Edition too? Or is one ‘Avatar’ DVD enough to satisfy you? Leave comments and speak your mind.