The dates for the U.S. home video release of JJ Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness have been announced. It comes earlier than expected. Paramount is also trying something other studios have been toying with in the last year or so by offering an earlier release date of August 20, 2013 for the digital download version, compared to the physical disc releases that come a few weeks later on September 10 , 2013.
UPDATE: Official cover art has been released
Entertainment Weekly reports that Star Trek Into Darkness will be released on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and On Demand on September 10, 2013. A digital download of the film (i.e. iTunes) will be available three weeks earlier, on August 20, 2013.
“I’m thrilled with how everything looks and sounds,” Abrams said in a statement. “We also have some really fun behind-the-scenes special features that we shot on the Red [Epic cameras] and created entirely in-house at Bad Robot. They really look amazing and unlike anything I’ve seen on DVD or Blu-ray before.”
Those special features include making-of shorts about creating the Red Planet and the Klingon home world of Kronos, as well as a sit-down with stars Zachary Quinto and Benedict Cumberbatch — and a segment called “The Enemy of My Enemy,” which explores “how, and why, the identity of the film’s true villain was kept a mystery to the very end.”
Yahoo! Movies has an exclusive clip from the behind the scenes feature “Brawl by the Bay”.
Click to open the video in a new window
Paramount Home Video’s full press release is below:
Global Hit Debuts Three Weeks Early on Digital August 20th
HOLLYWOOD , Calif. , July 10, 2013 /CNW/ – Lauded by critics as “a sleek, thrilling epic” ( Owen Gleiberman , Entertainment Weekly), “a clever, exhilarating action adventure” ( Claudia Puig , USA Today) and “stratospherically entertaining” ( Peter Travers , Rolling Stone), director J.J. Abrams’ phenomenal global sensation STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS makes its highly-anticipated debut on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD and On Demand on September 10, 2013 from Paramount Home Media Distribution. Fans can be the first to own the film on Digital when it arrives three weeks early on August 20 th. Boasting “spectacular visual effects” ( Steven Rea , Philadelphia Inquirer) and “one of the best villains in recent memory” ( Joe Neumaier , New York Daily News) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS delighted audiences around the world, earning a coveted A CinemaScore.
“I’m excited for viewers at home to check out Star Trek Into Darkness on Blu-ray and DVD,” said J.J. Abrams . “They did a great job and I’m thrilled with how everything looks and sounds. We also have some really fun behind-the-scenes special features that we shot on the Red and created entirely in-house at Bad Robot. They really look amazing and unlike anything I’ve seen on DVD or Blu-ray before.” Abrams added “I hope fans enjoy seeing the process that went into making the movie and the truly amazing work of our most spectacular cast and crew.”
The STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Blu-ray/DVD and Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD combo packs with UltraViolet™ are bursting with behind-the-scenes material detailing how the filmmakers delivered a rousing epic filled with both spectacle and soul. For the first time, the special features included in the combo packs were produced entirely by Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions and captured in spectacular high quality on Red Epic cameras for a uniquely intimate perspective of the filmmakers’ process.
Written by Roberto Orci , Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof , the film follows the crew of the Enterprise as a shocking act of terror on Earth sends them on a manhunt to capture an unstoppable force of destruction and bring those responsible to justice. STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS features an outstanding ensemble cast including John Cho , Benedict Cumberbatch , Alice Eve , Bruce Greenwood , Simon Pegg , Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Zoe Saldana , Karl Urban , Peter Weller and Anton Yelchin .
STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack The STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Blu-ray is presented in 1080p high definition with English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. The DVD in the combo pack is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.
The combo pack includes access to a digital copy of the film as well as the following:
Blu-ray
- Feature film in high definition
- Creating the Red Planet – Experience the creation of a never-before-seen alien world, as featured in the action-packed opening sequence of the film.
- Attack on Starfleet – Go behind the scenes with the cast and filmmakers and witness the creation of the shocking attack on Starfleet Headquarters.
- The Klingon Home World – Discover the stunning world of Kronos, and see how the filmmakers reinvented the Klingons for a new generation.
- The Enemy of My Enemy – Find out how, and why, the identity of the film’s true villain was kept a mystery to the very end.
- Ship to Ship – An in-depth and thrilling look at the filming of the iconic space jump sequence, which both defied the laws of physics and pushed the limits of visual effects.
- Brawl by the Bay – Sit in with Zachary Quinto and Benedict Cumberbatch as they revisit their intense preparation for the film’s breathtaking climax.
- Continuing the Mission – An inspiring look at the partnership between the film’s crew and the organization that assists returning veterans to find meaningful ways to contribute on the home front.
DVD
- Feature film in standard definition
STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack The STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Blu-ray 3D combo pack includes all of the above, as well as the film in high definition and 3D on a disc presented in 1080p high definition with English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.
STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Single-Disc DVD The single-disc DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. The disc includes the feature film in standard definition.
The Blu-ray releases available for purchase will be enabled with UltraViolet, a new way to collect, access and enjoy movies. With UltraViolet, consumers can add movies to their digital collection in the cloud, and then stream or download them – reliably and securely – to a variety of devices.
Wife would kill me if I bought the phaser set.
I’m looking forward to seeing Star Trek Into Darkness on Blu Ray. I hope J.J. Abrams does more in the Star Trek universe. Maybe he can participate in round table discussion about Star Trek as it reaches its fiftieth anniversary. Or maybe help launch a new TV series. One can dream.
No deleted scenes? lol what the crap eh..
What is the total time length of all the special features? A couple of hours? I hope they are more than 2-10 minutes in length.
But yeah, I am so totally getting the Blu Ray when it comes out.
I was hoping for deleted scenes too. I guess this is just an excuse for Paramount to turn around and double-dip us with an expanded bonus features version next year :-/
I wonder if they will do a BluRay combo pack of ST 2009 and STID? Or wait and get the BluRay Trilogy pack?
Silly question – why is this considered ‘earlier then expected’? Had not seen any earlier announced release dates, though I’ll admit I’ve not really been looking for them…
Phil,
The original planned release date (for the physical formats) was at the end of September, three weeks later than the confirmed release date for the Blu Ray/dvd.
“The Enemy of my Enemy” sounds intriguing.
No gag reel? I want Pegg’s Neutron Cream prank in there!
@ Mike
Not only would my wife kill me for getting the bluray w/ the phaser, I think she would USE the thing to take me out.
Interesting how now all DVD and BluRay’s are the same day as VOD. Used to be you had to wait a few months until movies were on VOD. I wonder if soon theather’s might even become obsolete?
Studios have been doing day and date VOD releases for a couple of years now, some studio and titles even longer. People have been preferring to use VOD over renting a disc for many years now, one of the big reasons why Blockbuster went under, etc.
More on the idea of the cineplex changing, getting smaller, and movie ticket prices going up and watching more movies at home:
http://theosroundtable.com/john-sciacca/john-sciacca-the-coming-home-theater-renaissance/
Matt weren’t all title not day and date until now because VOD couldn’t have all the movies that released on Tuesday and still have the previous ones because of channel and storage issues? Now I think they increased the storage to get rid of the day and date delays.
Also SomeRedBox still rents DVD/BluRay. I like VOD for convenience. VOD is $4.50 more than VOD. However I think VOD is the future.
Sorry shouldn’t have added the some Redbox, all Redbox kiosks rent DVD/Bluray.
@1. Mike C
get some balls dude…..
No commentary track? Sounds like JJ and his team are running out of interest.
@ Craiger – it depends on your cable company, but for example Comcast dramatically increased their VOD infrastructure to start housing entire seasons of popular TV shows and offer day-and-date for popular movies back in 2010 and continue to build out VOD servers with newer software platforms behind the scenes. They called it Project Infinity.
@#17 More like the fans.
I have been talking about this with my friends, family and wife for about a decade now… the fact that VOD and streaming technology is becoming more and more available…the fact is that many (or a lot) of people cannot go to theaters for whatever reason; whether it is time, family obligations, disabilities, personal preference, etc.
For me, I stopped going to see movies in the theaters 10 + years ago…in fact SW Ep.3 was my last true movie adventure. Well, I take that back…I took my daughter to see ToyStory 3 in the theater – I wanted her to experience a theater movie once in her life…but for my wife and I, it is just too expensive, loud, crowded, more or less disguisting (seats, floor), people smell…It literally cost us $45 for 2 adults and 1 child (with popcorn and drink) to see Toy Story 3.
The way I figure it, just 1/2 of the cost of that experience I can own the BluRay/DVD combo pack and watch it indefinately.
However, I totally foresee the whole cimena/movie theaters going away. I would rather VOD a movie like Star Trek ID on the week it comes out on VOD….watch it on my LG 52″ LCD 1080i tv, in the comfort of my own home…where I can pause it so I can take a leak or go get a drink (or both)…watch it at 10am or 10pm…or 3am (or when the hell I want to).
I would be willing to pay $15-20 to rent a new movie release (theatrically) and be able to watch at home…
@1. Mike C
Not if you grab the phaser first she won’t.
@16. JohnRambo
THEY’RE RELEASING A SET WITH BALLS??!?!!?!??!
Looks like Paramount want quick recoup of their money, a very early release considering the 2009 Star Trek didnt come out til late oct (US) and not til Nov (UK) for me
even here the John Rambo SR of youtube Phrase of would you like some balls surfaces lol
also any word of a model of the overhauled ship in the features somewhere?
GAG REEL??? That was the best part of the last DVD!
Also: deleted scenes. I know Alice Eve spoke of some specifically. I’m curious to see what else there is.
I guess everyone is different, but I would certainly not want Theaters to go away in favor of home viewings. It simply doesn’t compare to seeing something on the big screen with a packed house of strangers gasping, laughing and cheering together. Going to the movies is very much about sharing the experience for me.
I’ll be purchasing my copy of the film on September 10th. I’m looking forward to viewing it again.
No deleted scenes? No surprise, really. One of my issues with the movie is that it felt overlong. It seemed to me like they left very little on the cutting room floor, and it definitely could have used some trimming. As I’ve said before, they removed too much from the first movie and too little from this one.
Sucks that there is no gag reel, though. I was actually hoping for a longer gag reel this time around, preferably one without Abrams’ “boom-boxing.” In fact, I was hoping for many more special features in general; if these really are all the special features that’s going to be on the Blu-ray, I’ll be disappointed.
I’ll definitely be grabbing the Blu-ray — eventually. I didn’t love STID so I don’t feel the need to go out and grab as soon as it comes out like I did with Trek ’09. The apparent lack of a gag reel, deleted scenes and special features in general doesn’t help.
23. Bester
“Looks like Paramount want quick recoup of their money, a very early release considering the 2009 Star Trek didnt come out til late oct (US) and not til Nov (UK) for me”
Believe it or not, they’ve already recouped their money. Of course, they’ll still have to cough up distribution costs over the next year or so, so maybe they’re trying to get a head start on that.
To clarify my comment in post #30, Paramount has already earned back every cent they’ve put into STID… so far. They still have to pay distribution and marketing costs, which is done in quarterly or yearly installments. I don’t believe they’ve earned enough from the movie’s box office gross to cover those costs, but I could be wrong. Considering the early DVD/Blu-ray release, I don’t think I am.
Normally the release of a new ST movie on DVD or bluray (or digital download now) is like Christmas to my geeky heart. But I’m tempted to just get the digital download on this one; or maybe wait till the blu ray comes down in price (after a few months of release).
I liked STID as a popcorn IMAX 3D thing (both of which won’t happen for me at home on my 42″ TV). But once the ‘shock & awe’ of the initial 3D IMAX viewing wore off, the glaring story issues and the patchwork writing became much more acute and bothersome. My wife and I both cringed (almost audibly) at the cut-and-paste “Wrath of Khan” switcheroo death scene (that was just cheap emotion milked from a superior movie). And the the big Khan ‘reveal’ thing was just stupid (despite a wonderful performance from Benedict Cumberbatch; he did a typically brilliant job even with the material he had)….
After the spot on perfect job Bad Robot did with ST09, STID felt like sloppy seconds to me. I’ll probably buy STID because I’m a ST completist and I’m almost Pavlov-conditioned to buy almost anything labeled Star Trek. Sad (and pathetic) but true… ;-(
I already own The Wrath of Khan DVD.
How come there are no deleted scenes ? Didn’t Abrams shows one such scene, “The Evil Shower” on a late talk show program ?
And Matt, thanks a lot for updating the site, it is good to see new articles.
I think the sort-of-secret-keeping provided a lot more suspense and twists than the actual story did.
The Abrams style of secret keeping parallels mystery religion. In both, you invest a lot for an implied payoff that will make it all worthwhile. Once you receive that payoff and realize how meager it is, you’ve already invested so much emotionally that you’ve got to pretend that it satisfied you.
“We also have some really fun behind-the-scenes special features that we shot on the Red [Epic cameras] and created entirely in-house at Bad Robot. They really look amazing and unlike anything I’ve seen on DVD or Blu-ray before.”
So basically, some guy fiddling with the depth-of-field as though he just bought his first Canon DSLR – set to a trendy soundtrack and a bunch of guys mumbling “JJ has a vision, he’s taking it to the next level, I think people are gonna be blown away big time”.
Honestly, they must have an utter mewling quim moderating the comment section here. I made one speculative remark about the slightest possibility that maybe the Behind The Scenes stuff would have some active sycophantry action (for which there is ample precedent on, I dunno, EVERY DVD ever sold) and it gets deleted. Honestly, typhus couldn’t take you quickly enough. Tread on a Lego piece, Il Duce.
This is complete bullcrap that I can’t get my Blu-ray until weeks after the teenagers and twentysomes get their precious downloads.
Here we go again. I get F’d by the studio by the geting the release here in the U.S. weeks after everywhere else, and now I get F’d by the studio in getting my Blu-ray weeks after everyone else.
I’m really tempted to completely cancel my Blu-ray order and not even get this one.
@27 “I guess everyone is different, but I would certainly not want Theaters to go away in favor of home viewings.”
In general, I agree. But I see a major exception. If I could have paid $100 to get STID in my home in parallel with the international release dates weeks ahead of the late late U.S. release date, I would have gone for that.
@12 “People have been preferring to use VOD over renting a disc for many years now, one of the big reasons why Blockbuster went under, etc”
If you like ultra-compression algorithm “fake HD” with limited fake 5.1 audio, go for it.
I’ll take my real 1080p real HD video and uncompressed DTS Master Audio any day over that fake stuff.
You pay for what you get.
#37.
“Here we go again. I get F’d by the studio by the geting the release here in the U.S. weeks after everywhere else, and now I get F’d by the studio in getting my Blu-ray weeks after everyone else.”
Yeah, I agree. I’m not sure what the big deal is with digital downloading, and don’t understand why its available three weeks ahead of the Blu Ray version. I’m not sure why some people don’t want a physical copy on hand just in case the digital copy gets deleted, or doesn’t download properly.
“Playback of 1080p content is extremely processor-intensive unless you use hardware acceleration such as VDPAU. Many users download 1080p content from the internet that has been transcoded and downsampled to very low bitrates. True HD-DVD and Blu-ray rips average between two and four times higher bitrates. These files are therefore substantially more difficult to play. The advantage to this method is that the quality is vastly superior when viewing an untranscoded rip.”
37:
MJ (The Original)
You make it seem as if Paramount’s entire release schedule for STID in both theaters and on home video is geared toward messing up the Trekkish part of your personal life.
If you indeed own such a super home video system, and would be the only member of the club paying $100 to see the film at home 3-4 days before the US theatrical release, you should have bought yourself a ticket to Europe and caught it there first. You haven’t truly experienced ‘Star Trek’ until you’ve heard it in its original German.
In the end, you are frustrated because you KNOW you’ll download it AND buy the Blu-Ray. It’s irresistable.
@42. Yea, you are right. But I don’t have to like it. :-))
Too bad we can’t purchase the Blu Ray on Aug 20th and get access to the digital copy until the actual disc come out three weeks later…
So Happy Its release date is earlier than expected!! Cant wait for the 3D Copy!!! This was such a Good Movie!!
it sounds like they are so desperate for more money to make up for the underperforming at box office they literally havent had time to, or they dont care to spend the time to bother to put together deleted scenes n gag reels n commentaries…,.too bad loved the last movies outakes…would be interesting n illuminating to hear supreme courts opinions n feelings over fan reactions to the movie especially the khantroversies…sigh…jjs too busy to oversee this n they probably feel us fans will buy it anyway…it takes months to put together features n commentaries why do i fear jj aint bothering any moe….thanx starwars…..as others mentioned if they get around to it in a year they will make us buy it again for the new features we should have now..maybe we should all wait for the rest of the features before buyin it…also anyone with 3d tvs would luv to hear how good the 3d is at home n if there is a good yet inexpensive 3d tv out there..and would a playstation 3 or 4 work for the 3d bluray player?
It’s actually quite cynical.
Since the digital download is the useless, unpopular Ultraviolet copy, there’s no point waiting for the blu ray if you want an iTunes copy for taking around with you.
So because it’s a fairly popular film anyway, chances are a lot of people will buy or rent iTunes first, then get the blu ray for the special features, better picture and sound and/or the 3D.
I’m pretty resigned to buying it at least twice.
Also here they are selling us stid again already when they havent even announced a sequel yet….scares me to think jjs leaving plus underperforming might equal trek dying yet again….and the lack of any enthusiastic comments or hints from anyone from jj to bob orci to paramount i fear doesnt bode well for us fans….sigh
i saw it three times with friends n relatives…i saw the first one 7 or 8 times….multiply that by most fans theres some of the missing money there….