It looks like the rumors about Avatar becoming available on Blu-ray 3D in December may be true, but it will not be as easy to get as it may appear.
An article in TWICE reports that Panasonic will have an exclusive launch partnership with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment for the release of Avatar on Blu-ray 3D. The catch is that it will only be available through a Panasonic 3D bundle that will only be offered to purchasers of a Panasonic 3D Viera plasma TV. Panasonic has also hinted that the movie may also be made available to consumers who have already purchased a Viera 3D HDTV.
At this point it is not know how long Panasonic will retain the exclusive rights to the Avatar Blu-ray 3D disc, but that could further stifle the growth of 3D sales in general due to a lack of Blu-ray 3D movies. Panasonic has already tied up the Blu-ray 3D rights to Coraline and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Hopefully, these will be available to other 3D movie fans some time in the first quarter of next year, but there haven’t been any official announcements thus far.
This is getting to the point where it should start to get real upsetting to anyone who recently purchased non-Panasonic 3D gear in anticipation of the dozens of 3D movies that were supposed to be released before the end of 2010. At the time of this writing, there is only one movie available on Blu-ray 3D that is not tied up in a bundling scheme (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs) and two that are available for pre-order (A Christmas Carol and Monster House).