Middle Earth 4K Ultimate Collection Coming In October

Warner Bros has announced the 20th Anniversary Blu-ray box set for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogies. The Middle Earth 6-Film Ultimate Collector's Edition contains a total of 31 discs in a pretty neat "Puzzle Box" that will include new cover art, 64-page booklet, 7 travel poster art cards and 1 disc of new special features. The retail price is $249.99 for release on October 26. You can pre-order now on Amazon. Keep reading for more details. 

The reason for the 31 discs is due to containing both the 4K and regular Blu-ray edition of each film. This breaks down to six 4K Blu-ray and six regular Blu-ray for theatrical release of each. Add to that twelve 4K Blu-ray and six regular Blu-ray for the extended editions of each Lord of the Rings trilogy film (4 discs for each film in each format) for a total of 30 discs. The last disc is a special feature disc containing the Cannes Film Festival Presentation Reel from I think 2000 and 3 part Alamo Drafthouse Lord of the Rings Cast Reunion. 

 It should be noted that DVD extra features are NOT included. This means no Appendices which remains the best making of documentaries ever made. Also no commentary tracks or any of the other special features that were released on the DVD sets years ago. The only special features are the ones above. Suffice it to say this makes this an incomplete release despite the "Ultimate" title. My guess is the decision was made to reduce cost since likely the sound and picture quality of the old features where not good enough for Blu-ray and WB was unwilling to spend the money to perform an upgrade on all that footage. If interested in buying, use this link to purchase so site gets credit.