Best Buy's 'Elemental' 4K Steelbook
Merchandising: 4K ‘Elemental’ Exclusives Arrive
September 27, 2023
Disney’s Elemental arrived on retail shelves Sept. 26, but only the Blu-ray combo pack and DVD versions were given traditional wide releases. As was the case with the studio’s Little Mermaid remake a week earlier, the 4K editions of the Pixar animated movie were made retail exclusives.
Best Buy’s edition is, as usual, the 4K combo pack in Steelbook packaging, for $39.99.
Walmart’s version of the 4K combo pack comes with special lenticular box art, for $30.96.
What otherwise would be considered the standard 4K Blu-ray combo pack of the film — the two discs in a plastic case with a simple slipcover — has been made an exclusive of the studio’s proprietary Disney Movie Club online membership store, for $34.95. The DMC version is offered with a free lithograph, and with various membership savings opportunities could be had for as low as $11.98, depending on what other titles are purchased at the same time.
Meanwhile, at Target, which doesn’t have one of the Elemental exclusives, several stores in Orange County, Calif., didn’t have any copies on shelves even by Wednesday, Sept. 27, a day after street date. Target’s website at least indicated copies were available in stores, which is more than can be said for The Little Mermaid a week earlier, which Target listed as available online only (Little Mermaid is now also listed as available in stores, though no copies were seen at the stores visited).
A store in Seal Beach, Calif., displayed a nearly empty new-release kiosk, though it did have new shelf tags for not only Elemental and Little Mermaid, but also Paramount’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which isn’t scheduled for release until Oct. 10.
All of this comes as reports hit social media that many Target stores have begun removing their DVD and Blu-ray sections entirely.
In the meantime, Target was promoting Halloween movies and books for as low as $5. Target’s weekly ad circular also touted the chain is taking preorders for Warner’s Barbie Blu-ray, a date for which hasn’t been announced yet.
Another exclusive released during the week came at Best Buy, in the form of another 4K Steelbook, this time for Shout! Studios’ collector’s edition of Natural Born Killers, offered for $32.99.
