If you believe Warner Home Video and a lot of film buffs, "Gone with the Wind" is the most successful motion picture of all time in several respects — earning a mind-boggling $1.5 billion in America in 1939, when ticket prices are adjusted for inflation. The three-hour classic (with perhaps the most familiar theme music in cinema history) about living on a Southern plantation during the Civil War surely is among the most popular and honored films of all time and on Nov. 17 it will be released on Blu-ray Disc, 70 years after its initial theater release.
And, of course, what is increasingly typical for most anniversary releases on video disc these days, the movie itself is only a small part of what will be a mammoth package of special features (and souvenir trinkets) — totaling more than 18 hours of content. "Gone with the Wind - 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition" will carry MSRP of $85 for the Blu-ray version.
A standard DVD package will provide 12 hours of content (MSRP $67) and another will feature primarily only the movie itself (MSRP $25), but only the Blu-ray version will include some special feature content, notably the MGM documentary about the studio and the film, "When the Lion Roars."
By the time GWTW is released in mid-November, Warner Brothers will have just finished marketing the disc release of another classic film. "The Wizard of Oz" which has a Blu-ray release date of Sept. 29.
