Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that it will release 4K Blu-ray discs sometime in 2016, which indicates a potential comeback for the format in the market.
SPHE's first lineup of 4K Blu-ray releases includes "The Smurfs 2," "Pineapple Express," "Chappie," "Hancock," "Salt" and "The Amazing Spider-Man 2." It will also be followed by an increasing list of titles not only of films but of television shows as well.
"By some estimates, consumers will own over 100 million Ultra HD television sets by 2019. Sony Pictures' 4K Ultra HD Discs will deliver consumers the ultimate home theater experience, with stunning picture and sound quality," Man Jit Singh, president of SPHE, says in a press release.
Sony Pictures already has a vast collection of 4K content that consists of recent television shows and films. It also includes remastered classic films such as "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "Taxi Driver," "The Guns of Navarone," "The Bridge on the River Kwai," "Lawrence Of Arabia," "Leon: The Professional," "Bram Stoker's Dracula," "The Da Vinci Code," "Bad Boys," "The Fifth Element," "Ghostbusters," "Men in Black," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Captain Phillips," "Fury" and many more.
According to SPHE, the ultra-high-definition format will also come with HDR support, and the studio intends to bring next-generation audio formats to the table.
This isn't the first time that a studio is releasing a batch of 4K Blu-ray discs, though, as Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment beat SPHE to the punch when it announced its plans at the IFA 2015 in Berlin last Sept. 3. The studio's lineup is composed of "Fantastic Four," "Life of Pi," "Exodus: Gods and Kings," "X-Men: Days of Future Past" and "Kingsman: The Secret Service."
Moving forward, SPHE's first batch of 4K Blu-ray discs will unfortunately not make it in time for the holidays, but that doesn't matter, as the studio's upcoming selection is more than enough to keep us on the edge of our seats.
